


Monster Carvers extras

by Raikim4Never



Series: Monster Carvers AU [4]
Category: Star vs. The Forces Of Evil
Genre: "Bonus" Content, Angst, Established Relationship, Family Fluff, Fluff, Gen, Other Additional Tags to Be Added
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-24
Updated: 2019-10-30
Packaged: 2020-01-31 06:38:16
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 16
Words: 20,047
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18585808
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Raikim4Never/pseuds/Raikim4Never
Summary: Deleted Scenes and Bonus Content from my Monster Carvers AU.





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, everyone! Unfortunately, the next chapter of my Monster Carvers fic has been giving me heck and isn't ready to go yet, but I didn't want to let an update day pass by without posting anything for the 8-ish people who actually read my fic, so... bonus content, I guess! Starting with deleted scenes! The stuff I cut from the prologue is lost to the ether, but I never got rid of the ones from the following chapters, so we'll start there. :)
> 
> Edit: Yeah, these feel more like bloopers than deleted scenes. Whoops.

Tom-Marco Meeting:  
(Take 1)  
The walk to the principal's office wasn't long, but he was surprised to see the seats of the office were already full. There was some chubby guy with glasses in one chair, and in the other was-  
Marco blinked. He blinked again. The person sitting in the other chair was not human, or at least he was wearing a very convincing cosplay.  
"Marco!" the principal greeted cheerfully, getting up from his seat to walk over to and put an arm around the student. "There you are! I have an important job for you, lad!"  
"Uh." Marco glanced at the smaller figure, who looked to be huddled into a very angry ball of hate. "What would that be, sir?"  
"Why, to show our new student around the school, of course! He's just transferred in, as you can see, and I thought the safest, most responsible student in the entire school would be the best choice to show him around."  
Marco was briefly torn between fear of the three (three???) angry eyes glaring at him and offense at his title. Offense won.  
"Hey, I'm not safe! I'm a misunderstood bad boy!"  
"Oh, then you should get along with Tom perfectly well," the man in the chair said jovily. The three angry eyes, to Marco's relief, shifted from Marco to the man.  
"That's not what I-"  
"Well, let's not waste anymore time, then! We wouldn't want you to miss any more classes than you already have!" Marco looked at the principal in confusion.  
"Sir, that's not... how the transfer-and-guide system works here? I read on the school website that guides get the day off afterwards."  
The... kid (Tom?) coughed into his hand, one of those fake coughs that was meant to indiscreetly cover an insult. Marco didn't catch what the word was exactly, but he knew it was aimed at him and glared. Before he could get a word out, though, he was shoved out the door, with Tom being dragged out by the other guy a second later.  
"You kids have fun!" The principal said, before walking out of the school for... some reason.  
"Try not to burn the school down, okay?" the guy told Tom, before leaving himself.  
There was a minute of awkward silence as Marco glanced everywhere except the new transfer student, who slid his hands into the pockets of his jacket.  
"So... Was that... your dad?" he asked, trying to ignore the fact that this dude had three eyes, horns, and purple skin.  
"Brian? No way. He's one of my parents servants."  
"Servant, huh? That's... you know what, how about we just start this tour?"  
"Yeah, okay."  
"Alright, so, that's math lab number one..." Marco pointed at a nearby door, then paused. "Actually, did you get your schedule? I could just... show you where your classes specifically are."  
"This thing?" Tom asked, pulling out a crumbled piece of paper from his pocket.  
................................................................................................................................................  
One quick tour later:  
"And that's pretty much everything you need to know, plus some extra just in case- watch your step-"  
"Dude, it's just a crack in the floor."  
"Yeah, but you don't want to ruin your day by tripping and potentially breaking your nose, do you?" Tom made a disgusted noise that just got another brief glare from Marco. "But, yeah, that should be everything."  
"'Kay. This place is... just as boring as I figured. But thanks anyway, I guess."  
"Gee, your welcome," Marco said, rolling his eyes. "Hey can I ask you something?"  
"I guess?" Tom replied, raising an eyebrow.  
"What... are you? Is that some kinda cosplay?" Tom glared at him.  
"I'm a demon. Obviously." Tom stopped glaring and smirked instead. "In fact, I happen to be the crown prince of demons." With that, he summoned a jet of fire behind himself, ever forming a crown of flame around his head.  
"...yeah okay." Marco said, clapping his hands together after staring for a minute. "I'm just... going to go now." Oh man, what had he gotten into?  
................................................................................................................................................  
"Hey Mom, Dad, I'm home! I brought grocer-" Marco called into his house then stopped. His parents were on the couch chatting.  
With Tom. Who was on his couch.  
"Uh. What's going on?"  
"Whoa, Marco! These are your parents?"

 

Rewrite of principal scene:  
“Ah, Marco my boy, come in!” the principal greeted, not quite looking at Marco as he slung an arm around his shoulders. “I want you to meet our newest transfer student!” The principal gestured at an angry huddled ball of someone who was obviously not human. Marco felt his inside’s freeze at the… transfers… glare. “Marco Diaz, meet Tom Lucitor!”  
Oh no.  
“...Lucitor? Like Lucifer? The devil?”  
The angry ball huffed and unfurled himself, never once ceasing the glare he was sending at Marco as the two boys looked over each other.  
Tom had light purple skin, bull-like horns, and a third eye on his forehead. And his last name was an obvious corruption of Lucifer. What the heck was the principal forcing him into? Some sort of cult thing? He wanted to shed the ‘Safe Kid’ moniker, yeah, but not like this! Demonic stuff was really more Janna’s thing and oh man this was her fault somehow wasn’t it. Stuff like this always seemed to be.

 

(fight scene take 1)  
“It’s called… karate,” Marco said coolly (in his opinion).  
The little green thing rounded on the bigger green thing again.  
“You didn’t tell me he had a bodyguard!” The bigger green thing just shrugged. “UGH! Whatever! It’s just two teenage boys! Get them! ALL OF YOU!”  
Some guy with deer antlers and a giant hammer tried to rush them along with a bear with a horn, only for them to be knocked back by a fireball and knocked away with a karate chop, respectively.  
A pair of arms tried to grab Marco, only for him to spin around to punch the monster in the face. It turned out that the monster had two heads, meaning the punch only hit air. The monster laughed for a second, before Marco just started punching both faces.  
Some three-eyed goblin man rushed him, and he lashed out with a kick to the guy’s stomach. The goblin man tripped over some sort of giraffe guy who was yelling ‘STOP DROP AND ROLL’ while on fire, while Tom blew on one of his fingers like it was a smoking gun.  
While Marco was distracted, some chicken thing rushed from behind him and began pecking him violently on the head, which he responded to with another kick. Tom pointed two fingers at the now-flying chicken and it suddenly began to levitate. With a whip of the demon’s arm, the chicken man was sent flying into the bigger green thing that had been trying to leap onto Tom, sending him flying backwards.  
“Well, that was easy,” Tom grinned, looking between Marco and their downed opponents.  
“That was awesome!” Marco cheered. 

 

(fight scene take 2)  
“It’s called,” Marco grinned, and karate chopped another monster. “karate.”  
The little green thing rounded on the bigger green thing again.  
“You didn’t tell me he had a bodyguard!” The bigger green thing just shrugged. “UGH! Whatever! It’s just two teenage boys! Get them! ALL OF YOU!”  
The other monsters charged, only to be met with several fireballs to the face. One with two heads managed to duck under the fireballs and jumped at Marco, who lashed out with a punch that went between the heads. They gave Marco a smug chuckle, which stopped when Marco simply switched to chopping the sides of their heads instead.  
A group of three monsters tried to charge Tom again, only for him to point downwards and send a small jet of fire to the ground, which trailed towards them and melted the asphalt they were standing on. Suddenly stuck to the ground, they immediately fell over onto their faces.  
Marco dodged a streetlight that the bigger green monster was using as a club and punched him in the stomach. It didn’t seem to do much.  
Marco was saved by the big green monster being levitated in the air and then slammed into the ground twice. A quick kick followed by a groan confirmed the monster was still alive, but down for the count. A glance at Tom confirmed the demon was responsible for the save.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Didn't bother going back to fix the italics on these. What does this thing have against italics specifically, anyway? >:/
> 
> The first Tom-Marco meeting scene didn't feel right, but I still kept trying to push it through until I eventually threw up my hands and decided NOPE I HATE THIS. It did, however, show some of the idea that I wasn't able to work into the final version- namely that Brian was the one to help transfer Tom in, and that SOMETHING was done to the principal mentally to get him to accept Tom, which is partially why Marco suspected that Tom had brainwashed his parents. The second one is nowhere near finished, but it does touch on an idea I had that got scrapped- the idea that people would be freaked out, at least initially, by the fact that Tom is blatantly not human/demonic. In the show, Star looks exactly like a human, save for her cheek marks that could easily be written off as makeup or face paint (or makeup being used as face paint). Marco doesn't really freak out about her until she does magic, so it's possible that until then he'd written her off as a weird human. By the time we see her doing magic around other students, it's presumably been a while and everyone's had time to adjust. By the time Tom is introduced in canon, everyone's had time to get used to weirdness through Star, so that Tom being, well, a demon isn't much to take notice of, which wouldn't be the case here. Unfortunately, I couldn't fit it in right, so the concept is currently scrapped.
> 
> The fight scenes were just heck to write, but I did decide in the first one that Buff Frog would be taken out by Tom's telekinesis. I (sort of) enjoyed coming up with different ways for that to happen in each rewrite. It's also kinda interesting in retrospect that I didn't come up with the idea of having Buff Frog try NOT to hurt Marco in the fight until the final 'cut' if you will. It just feels in-character, since he's currently supposed to be a bizarre hybrid of his season 1-season 2 character. (how well I'm managing that, I have no idea).


	2. Mother's Day (Season 1)

Tom yawned and walked through the door to the rest of the house, only to be greeted by the sight of Mr. Diaz talking frantically on the phone and Marco running around trying to clean every available surface. Despite the sudden urge to just turn around and walk back into his room, he instead grabbed Marco as he ran past and gave him a confused look.

“What’s going on?” he asked.

“What do you mean, ‘what’s going on’? It’s Mother’s Day tomorrow!”

That cleared all of nothing up.

“...is that an earth holiday?” he asked. Marco just stared at him in shock for a second, before facepalming.

“One day I’m going to learn not to take what you do and don’t randomly know for granted. __Yes,__ it’s an earth holiday. Basically, it’s just a day to give your Mom and grandmothers a break and show them how much you love them.”

“No, I’m telling you, I made arrangements for an edible bouquet __and__ roses, not a bouquet of edible roses!” Mr. Diaz was saying on the phone. “I thought roses were already edible!”

“...Dad’s having some trouble with his gifts for Mom and Grandma, so I’m taking care of, uh, everything else right now.”

“...right. Well, I’m just gonna… go back downstairs now, since it’s Saturday and we don’t have school.”

Tom turned around, but stopped when Marco grabbed his shoulder.

“Tom, _please help me,”_ Marco begged. Tom just gave him a flat look.

“Why? It’s your mom and grandmother, not mine.” Marco made a strangling motion at him.

“There is no way I’m getting the entire house clean enough for my Grandma’s visit tomorrow in a few hours, and I’ve still gotta grocery shop and make _my_ gifts! I need help man!”

“Wow. This holiday sounds like a lot of stress.”

Marco winced.

“That’s… more my family specifically, I think? No one else at school ever seems to have this much trouble, but Dad and I always seem to end up leaving everything until the last second for some reason.”

“That really sounds like a _you_ problem, Marco.”

“Just come help me!” Not giving Tom a chance to say no, he physically dragged the demon into the kitchen.

….………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

 

A dimension away, Queen Moon walked briskly to her son’s room. She gave a hard look to the guards, who scrambled to let her pass.

“Queen Moon!” the nurse gasped, Sol, who was curled up in her arms and half asleep, startled awake and began to cry. “Ohhhh no. Shhh, little prince, shhh.” She rocked the baby back and forth, and eventually he settled down. She quickly put him back in his bed, then turned to the Queen and bowed.

“My Queen,” she said, “what may I do for you this afternoon?”

Moon looked at the bed.

“I just hoped for some quality time with my son.” The nurse stood up straight.

“Of course, my Queen, I’ll leave-”

“No, that’s quite alright,” Moon told her, uncomfortably well aware that the woman in front of her was much better equip to deal with her own child than she was.

Comet, Moon had been told, had been amazing with her when she was a baby. It hurt knowing she hadn’t shown her own children the same affection she had been showered with, and she was determined to fix that. Her daughter would be rescued from wherever she was and occasionally would imagine Star and Sol becoming the closest royal siblings since Solaria and Jushtin.

She could hope.

“Could you… show me how to hold him?” Moon asked finally. No one had ever corrected her when she was holding either of her children, of course, but a nagging voice in her head told her she should have been corrected. Their crying also tipped her off, just a bit.

“Well. I, ah. Alright, My Queen.”

….………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

 

“Alright, I did your dumb shopping,” Tom announced, laying several bags on the kitchen table. Marco pulled himself out of the oven he had been cleaning. “You know, I don’t think I’ve ever seen your mom clean as much as you have in the past few hours.”

“Maybe not in the course of __one day__ , but she does way more than this,” Marco defended, irritated. “Besides, I was cleaning this,” he pat the oven, “because it needed to be cleaned before I started cooking tomorrow morning.”

Tom just gave him a bored look.

“Can I go back to my room, now?”

“What the heck are you planning on doing in your room all day?”

Tom just shrugged.

“I dunno,” he replied as Marco began unloaded the bags. “I mean, I have a bunch of video games.” He grabbed something out of the bag. “This one’s for me.”

“Did you seriously use my grocery money to go shopping?!” Marco asked, irritated. “Dude, you are _rich!_ ”

“Yeah,” Tom acknowledged, “but I didn’t bring any of my money with me when I went to grab your stuff.”

“Are you at least going to pay me back?”

“No.”

….………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

 

“My Queen,” the nurse looked torn between wanting to correct Moon and being too terrified to do so. “Please, um, relax? If you’re nervous or anxious, the baby will be able to tell, and become worried himself.”

“Oh, yes, of course.” Moon relaxed her arms as much as she could bring herself to. Sol looked up at her with bright blue eyes and blinked.

 

“Mah?” he burbled, the held out his arms in front of him, making grabbing motions with his hands.

“What is it, Sol?” she asked, feeling somewhat ridiculous. Sol made a noise of exertion and grabbed her necklace. Moon choked slightly as he pulled on it. The nurse gasped, horrified.

“Oh no, oh no!” she babbled. “I should have warned you! I’m sorry!”

“No, it’s alright,” Moon consoled her. “Just, please, can you get him to let go?”

….……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

 

“Okay, _now_ what are you doing?” Tom asked for what felt like the fifth time. Marco sighed, not looking away from his project.

“What does it _look like,_ Tom?” Marco asked, gluing some foam together in the shape of a flower on some construction paper.

“A kindergartners arts-and-crafts project,” Tom said bluntly.

“Well it’s not!” Marco huffed. “I’m making Mom a card.”

“And that’s different from what I said… how?”

“I don’t know, Tom!” Marco snapped. “It just is! What are you doing up here, anyway? Finally get bored playing in your room alone?”

“What? No, no…” Tom waved Marco off, a slightly nervous look on his face. “I just… wanted to borrow something.”

“...what did you want to borrow?” Marco asked suspiciously. Tom looked away quickly.

“Nothing. I’ll come back later.”

….…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

 

“Queen Moon?” a voice called from the doorway. Moon, who was holding a now-sleeping Sol in her arms and no longer wearing her necklace, looked towards the voice, which belonged to one of her personal servants.

“Yes?” she asked.

“Ah, the time you cleared to spend time with your son is, um, over, your Highness.”

“Oh. Already?” She’d cleared several hours to bond with her son. How could the time has passed so quickly?”

“Yes Ma’am.”

“Alright, then,” Moon sighed, gave one last look to Sol, then handed him carefully back to the nurse. The nurse put him in his bed, then gave her back her (damaged) necklace. Moon thanked her, and headed towards the door. She paused a bit when she reached it, before continuing, not letting herself look back again.

….………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

-The Next Day-

“Happy Mother’s Day, Mom!” Marco told Angie, who had only just woken up despite it being nearly ten in the morning. He presented a plate of pancakes to her.

“Oh, Sweetie, thank you!” she smiled. “This looks delicious.”

“Nothing but the best for my mom!” Marco grinned proudly. “Tom helped, too.”

“Oh, that was very sweet of him,” Angie said, looking touched. “Where’s your father?”

“Uh, the people bringing his gift got their orders mixed up…” Marco started and his mom winced.

“Ah. Again?”

“Yep.”

“Well, I’d better eat these delicious pancakes quickly. I need to get the house ready for-”

“No need!” Marco said quickly. “The house is pretty much spotless. You can come look, if you want.” Marco pointed at the plate. “But maybe on your way to the kitchen? Don’t want the pancakes getting cold, after all.”

….…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Hanging outside the door, Tom blushed slightly when Marco brought him up. Of course he’d make it sound like he’d volunteered or something…

He froze slightly as he heard Mrs. Diaz getting out of bed, and bolted back to his room. None of this really had anything to do with him, no matter what Marco had implied.

“Oh, Tom!” Mrs. Diaz called when he was halfway down the stairs. He froze.

“Uh. Good Morning?” he greeted, not sure what to say.

“Thank you for helping Marco,” she said, “everything looks fantastic.”

“Oh, yeah, you’re welcome,” he answered flippantly, before continuing back to his room.

….………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

 

In The Underworld, Wrathmelior sighed. Morning Court was more of the same, and she’d be lying if she said she wasn’t missing a certain someone right now.

She blinked in surprise when her family compact buzzed, indicating someone had sent her something. Curiously, she picked up the small mirror carefully (she really needed to have a custom model made one of these days) and flipped it open. She smiled when she saw who had messaged her. Speak of the demon! She opened the message and began to read.

_Hi Mom._

_Earth is weird. They apparently have a holiday dedicated to moms *other* than their birthdays? Anyway, since Marco is working so hard to make his mom (and grandmother I guess?) feel special, I kind of figured I should do the same thing. I made you something- it’s kind of dumb looking, sorry. (But not as dumb as it would have, I was going to make you a card but then I saw Marco making one and realized how stupid it looked). It should arive soon, and I’ll send you a picture in the meantime._

_Anyway, I miss you and dad. Can’t wait for our next phone chat._

_Chat on the phone. Whichever._

_Love Tom._

 

Wrathmelior smiled and opened the picture, revealing a bouquet of flowers that, on further inspection, were all made out of paper. She cooed, flattered.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Newest chapter isn't ready, sorry! (i swear it's like it's own fanfic at this point, fifteen pages and _growing!_ >.< ) Is posting a chapter where Moon tries to be a good mother irony at this point? I've been avoiding the newest episodes for reasons (writing reasons), but I've _still_ been spoiled on some stuff. (ARGH)


	3. Party with a Pony outtake

It didn’t actually take Ponyhead all that long to find them. They hadn’t gone all that far, the clearing was even still mostly in view if you knew where to look, but they were far enough away that they weren’t going to be overheard.  
“-idea how worried I was when you did not come back? You were to be home over an hour ago!” the Frogman was scolding. “I said to stay away from Mewmans travelling through woods, and what did you do? You go looking for them.”  
“I wasn’t looking for them, Dad, honest!” the girl defended. “I just… found them. By accident.”  
“By accident.” He didn’t sound convinced. Ponyhead figured that was as good a cue as ever.  
“Hey girl!” Ponyhead called, popping out from between the trees, startling the two. “What happened? I thought we were gonna cause some trouble then you were gonna keep showin’ me how to get back ‘ta the capital?”  
There was a brief pause as the Frogman sputtered in surprise, before turning back to the girl.  
“Who is this?”  
“Oh!” the girl started cheerfully. “This is… um… uh…” she trailed off, confusion working it’s way into her voice before she turned fully away from her dad to address Ponyhead. “Okay, uh, I don’t think I ever got your name?”  
“Ponyhead,” Ponyhead frowned. “I thought everyone knew me.”  
“No?” The girl said, obviously confused. Her father, however, obviously recognized the name.  
“Ponyhead? A member of Cloud Kingdom royal family?” He was getting visibly nervous at having a royal in front of him, but Ponyhead didn’t notice.   
“Yeah, duh, finally some recognition.”  
The Frogman noticed the girl’s confused expression, and took her off to the side. Some very quiet words were exchanged, and the girl looked mildly stunned when they walked back.  
“You’re a princess?” The girl blurted out, and the Frogman facepalmed.  
“Yeah? And I never got your name either, by the way.”  
“It’s…” the girl trailed off, and looked at the Frogman. He sighed, and gestured for her to continue. “Katrina. My name is Katrina.”  
“Well, finally!” Ponyhead huffed. “I’ve just been calling you ‘the girl’ in my head and it’s been really stupidly repetitive.”  
Katrina didn’t look like she knew how to respond to that.  
“If you are going to capitol city, then I will be going with you,” Katrina’s dad said, in a tone that made it clear he wouldn’t be taking no for an answer. Ponyhead knew that tone of voice pretty well. “Is not safe in forest if you do not know way around.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry that this is all I have for you guys this week, I'm working on multiple things at once for this AU and I'm feeling fairly burnt out (along with some real-life stuff going on. bright side: i have an income now! dark side: i have no time to write on fridays and saturdays :/) >.>;


	4. Uncle Jushtin (part 1)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Me:** *gets The Magic Book of Spells* Oh boy, I bet this will really help me with my fic!  
>  **Also Me:** *proceeds to spend week coming up with headcannons about the former queens and _not writing the fic_ * ........ah........

Jushtin hummed a song to himself as he applied his normal splash of hairdye and the cream he used to ease his spiderbites. He loved Recluza dearly, but he really wished he didn’t have to live in The Forest of Unlikely Spiderbites! He was so glad his beloved niece had clued him into a Slime’s… slime working on these things!

Unbeknownst to Jushtin, a window popped into existence behind him. To be fair to him, it was invisible. The figure looking through it clapped happily, and silently, upon realizing that the figure in the room was Jushtin and, after moving the window around, verifying that he was alone. Satisfied, the figure in the window made herself, and the window itself, visible. Jushtin still failed to notice, as it was directly behind him. She took a deep breath, intent on getting his attention.

“Uncle Jushtin!”

Jushtin let out a girly, startled shriek and jerked so hard he fell over. He grabbed his chest and tried to steady his breath and quicked heartbeat as he picked himself up and whirled around.

“Eclipsa!” he greeted as though the last time he’d seen his niece hadn’t been a year and a half ago. “It’s so fab to see you! _Don’t do that!_ ”

“Sorry,” she giggled. “I’m just glad to see you! It’s been entirely too long.”

“It has been!” he agreed, not saying anything about the fact that they’d probably see more of each other if she hadn’t run away from Mewni.

She looked tired, with bags on under her eyes that he could probably hide if he had the opportunity, dark even in the dimly-lit stone room she was in. Actually, maybe that was a cave? Whatever. She did, however, look happy. Happier than she’d been in a long time. Ever since. Since. Since his sister had.

Since his sister. It shouldn’t have been a sore spot with him still, he was pretty sure. It had been ages. But it was, just like it still was with his mom. Not a majorly sore one, but still.

Anyway.

He froze at the sound of footsteps approaching in a hurry, and so did Eclipsa. Both the former prince of Mewni and former queen turned (the entire magic window turning with Eclipsa) as someone knocked on the door.

“Lord Jushtin, are you alright?” a guard called, and the doorknob started rattling.

“I’m fine! Just got some dye in my eye!” Heh, accidental rhyme! “I’m not decent, so don’t come in!”

The guard muttered something unflattering under his breath, and the doorknob rattling stopped. The window turned back fully to Jushtin with a faint ‘voohm’ sound.

“Dye?” she asked, and Jushtin shrugged.

“I’ve got a look, kid, but I’m also startin to get old. You running off wasn’t exactly great for my hair color, neither.” Eclipsa at least had the decency to look sheepish as she apologized. “So. What’s gotcha popping into my room all of a sudden?” He paused, and reached his hand out towards her. “That’s a cool spell by the w-”

“ _Don’ttouchitit’llexplode!_ ” Eclipsa cut him off quickly and Jushtin snapped his hand back. There was a pause, before Eclipsa brightened up. “But! I really, really want you to meet someone!”

Jushtin’s stomach turned to ice and he gave his niece a nervous smile. Oh corn, she was going to introduce him to the the Prince of Darkness, wasn’t she? He wasn’t ready for that! He still had nightmares about him possibly eating her (dang that MHC and their terrifying gossip!)!

Eclipsa turned and picked something up before turning back to him, a giddy smile on her face.

Correction, she picked someone up. A baby. Jushtin stared for a few seconds in stunned silence.

“Meet your grand-niece!” Eclipsa’s smile threatened to break her face in two. “I know I probably shouldn’t have risked contacting you, but I had to introduce her to her family.”

Jushtin stared in shock as the baby looked at him with bright pink eyes (did the Prince of Darkness have pink eyes???) The baby tilted it’s (no, her, Eclipsa had said niece) head at him and babbled, before reaching her hands out.

“Oh, no sweetie! That exploding bit about the spell is the same on this side!”

The baby gurgled and settled down. Eclipsa’s smile had gone from a huge grin to a gentle smile. There was so much love in her eyes as she looked at her baby that Jushtin nearly teared up from it (it also reminded him of the way his sister had looked at her as a baby, which didn’t help).

“She’s cute,” Jushtin told her, “especially those chubby cheeks. And are those clovers? I’ve always liked clovers.” He grinned and pat his own face.

“Yes, they are! Three leaves, but still, I might not have thought to contact you if she’d been born with diamonds or something.” Jushtin pouted for a second.

“Well, quit stalling and tell me what her name is, kid!” Jushtin blurted out, eager.

“Oh! Goodness me, I actually forgot that I hadn’t told you!” she giggled. “Her name’s Meteora.” The baby babbled again at her name, and she waved a hand (and wait was that a tail). He waved back.

“Great to meet you, Meteora!” He smiled, and the baby looked at him in that way that only babies seemed to be able to. “I’m your great uncle!” She made a baby noise. “Yes, really!” Eclipsa grinned as Meteora gave him a baby smile and clapped.

“You’re still good with kids I see.”

“Well, I went through. Uh. My sis. You, my own four bundles of joy…” He leaned on the desk his morning ritual stuff was on. “I’d say I’m pretty good with kids, at this point.”

“And still getting teary-eyed over them,” Eclipsa pointed out. He grinned shamelessly. What could he say? Babies were cute. “Which is another reason I wanted to contact you!” She looked nervous as she bounced Meteora slightly. “Help?”

Jushtin stared at her, confused.

“With what?”

“I’m… a teensy bit nervous about being a mother?” she admitted. “You’ve had so much experience, and my darling here is my only child and I don’t want to… mess up? If you could give me some, I don’t know, tips or something?” She gave him puppy-eyes, which were hardly necessary. Not least of all because no one really came to him for advice any more. “Please?”

“Hey, no need to make that face! I’d be glad to give you some hard-won advice, kid!”

Eclipsa brightened, looking relieved.

The two spent the next two and a half hours talking about babies, with Jushtin coaching Eclipsa through various activities for Meteora as the baby got bored, before someone started pounding on the door.

“Lord Jushtin, are you sure you’re alright?” a voice called. “You’ve been in there a very long time!”

Crud!

“Oh, yeah, I’m fine!” he called back, voice raised slightly to get through the sound-dampening of the door, “Be out in a minute!” He looked at his niece. “Sorry, Eclipsa,” he told her, “but it looks like I’ve gotta scram, and soon.” Eclipsa nodded.

“Alright. It was fantastic to finally see you again, though!”

“Right back at’cha! And hey, with this spell you know you don’t have to be a stranger, right?” She nodded.

“I’ll be sure to keep in touch,” Eclipsa assured him. “I’ll probably need more advice later, anyways! Love you, Uncle!” Jushtin waved as the spell went out.

He never heard from her again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Eclipsa your Uncle is _sixty_ don't give him a heart attack (even if the dude is still weirdly spry, seriously get yourself looked at after falling over onto a hard wooden floor Jushtin)!  
> Jushtin is actually the only character I have a set timeline for! I'll show you guys in part two, whenever that comes around.


	5. Don't Be So Jealous outtakes

“That’s not even remotely a part of this!” Marco snapped. He was jealous, sure, he could admit that to himself, at least, but he’d figured that might have been some sort of cultural misunderstanding. Being a jerk to Alfonzo and Ferguson? Not so much. “You were acting way out of line with Alfonzo and Ferguson! They did literally nothing to you, man!”  
Tom stared at him for a few seconds, before glaring at him again.  
“I- You know what? Fine. Obviously they’re super important to you, so how about I just lock myself in my room so you don’t have to bother with me, huh?”  
Marco’s glare was replaced with a confused look, trying to follow Tom’s weird logic. How did he get from-  
“Wait. Are you jealous? Seriously?!” Marco groaned angrily. “I’ve known Alfonzo and Ferguson a lot longer than you! What, did you expect me to just dump any friends I had for you!?”  
Tom bared his frighteningly pointy teeth with a growl and a burner on the stove briefly caught fire, which Marco figured was probably a sign that he was correct.  
“Are you kidding me?!” Marco snarled. “I’m allowed to have other friends, Tom! I’m not just ditching everyone for you! Especially since I literally haven’t known you three days!”  
“Fine!” Tom snapped, storming to his room. “I thought maybe you were cool, but you’re just like everyone else!”  
“Well maybe ‘everyone else’ had a point!”  
Tom slammed his door shut hard enough to shake the frame, cutting off any further argument between the boys.

 

It was well past time to break out the big guns. Plan J.  
“It’s about time, Diaz,” Janna said, lazy grin in place as she hopped off the school mascot’s statue. “I heard you’re looking to talk to a demon?”  
“And maybe punch him in the face,” Marco muttered, as Janna led him towards an empty parking lot behind the school. It was concealed, which was perfect since he didn’t want anyone to see him doing this. For a number of reasons. “Are you sure you can summon a specific demon, and not just… a specific type of demon?” Janna scoffed in disgust.  
“Of course I can,” she sounded offended by the idea as she pulled candles and chalk from her backpack. “Draw a circle big enough for two people to sit down in. That should give us room.” She handed the chalk to Marco, then began digging in her bag again. “I’ve even got something of his to make sure of it.” She grinned as held up what looked like some old homework, probably stolen from a teacher. Marco tried not to be concerned.  
“And he won’t just… walk out of the circle?”  
“Nope.” Janna put a candle down on the circle. “That’s what the salt is for.”  
“Salt?” Marco asked, and Janna pulled out a bag of what was probably salt and pored it on the circle Marco had drawn.  
“Salt. Okay, now drawn a diamond in the circle, with two opposite points touching the circle. Now draw one going the other way…”  
After a few minutes, the two had set up the circle, and Janna lit the candles. Janna placed Tom’s homework in the middle of the circle, with some kind of herb on top of it. She thumbed through a book on demon summoning, lit the paper and plant on fire, then began reading some kind of chant out of the book.  
The fires all flared up for a full minute, before dying back down. Nothing else happened.  
“Really?” Marco groaned after a few seconds of nothing else happening. “Is that it?” Janna hmm’d and looked through her book.  
“Huh. He should have showed up, whether he wanted to or not. Something obviously went wrong.”  
“No kidding.”  
“Well,” Janna smiled, sliding the book back into her bag. “There is another way.” Marco gave Janna an unamused stare. “What? I’ve always wanted to try to rope you into a demon summoning, Mr. Safety.” Janna shoved some candles into her bag as well, then pulled out her phone. “I’ll just get him to talk to you the old fashion way.”  
“...what do you mean ‘the old fashion way’?” Marco asked apprehensively.  
“I mean, I’m just gonna talk to him myself, duh,” Janna answers casually.  
“You could have just done that? At any time?!”  
“Well, yeah, but then I wouldn’t have gotten the satisfaction of making you help me with this.” Janna smirked. “Don’t worry, this’ll work.”  
“That’s what you said about the summoning…”  
….……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..  
Tom jumped when someone slammed his locker door closed in his face.  
“Hey Tom.”  
Janna. He’d only talked to her a couple of times since he’d been… busy… but she’d been fairly persistent in talking to him. It was… nice, he supposed. He’d been so focused on earth school, demon studies, and making the idiots pay for taking his friend away that he hadn’t had anyone else to talk to. She was kind of creepy though, she asked a lot of personal questions.  
“Hey Janna.”

 

The urge to physically assault Tom had mostly dissipated by the time the two of them had gotten home. Mostly. Tom being back to thinking he’d actually sit with him on the bus ride back had made it a challenge for a second, but Marco was mostly just depressed by that point.  
Tom seemed to take that as an invitation to relax and stop trying to avoid him which made cornering him in the kitchen -again- easier at least.  
“Tom,” Marco started, grabbing the demon’s arm, which was significantly cooler than the last time, “we need to talk. Now.”  
“What’s up?” Tom asked, sounding perfectly casual like he hadn’t just terrorized Marco’s closest friends since grade-school into possibly ditching their friendship.  
“’What’s up’? Seriously?!” Tom gave him a weird look, and Marco groaned angrily. “What’s wrong with you?!” Tom tensed, then glared.  
“What do you mean-”  
“Did you get some sort of sick pleasure out of costing me my friends, Tom? I saw you smirking about it!”

 

Tom had looked startled to find Marco waiting for him after school.  
“...hi,” Tom greeted awkwardly.  
“Hey,” Marco replied, equally awkward. The two of them lapsed into silence for a minute. “That was… really cool of you, dude. To get in trouble for Al and Ferg, I mean.”  
Tom shrugged, looking uncomfortable.  
“I’m not a bully,” he said. “I just. Wanted to prove that to you.”  
“Thanks, I guess. Do you wanna ride home?” Tom looked startled by the question.  
“You want to- wait, didn’t the bus leave?”  
“Yeah,” Marco agrees, then rolls out his bike, which he’d brought back to school after learning Tom would be late. Tom blinked in surprise. “I didn’t want you to have to walk home if you didn’t want to, so…”  
“Thank you?” Tom didn’t look like he could quite process what was going on.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry, no Father's Day special. Still working on that. And the next official chapter.
> 
> I kind of like take one for the Boys' first argument, but I figured it would clue Marco into what was going on way too early. :P Also, it's short.
> 
> I mentioned previously/in the actual chapter that I realized it made no sense for Tom to keep avoiding Marco after Alfonzo and Ferguson ditched him, so no need to rehash that. The summoning didn't work for a number of reasons, the main one being it wasn't designed to summon a _half_ -demon. At least Janna got to enjoy herself. :P (and the scene cuts off right as i get to the blackmail bit, sorry)
> 
> Confrontation number two went a bit differently at first, as you can see.
> 
> And my initial attempt at the bike scene before I realized how bad the writing of it was. XD (protip, if i mention things being awkward multiple times very close to each other, it's because i have _no_ idea what i'm doing and can't think of anything. it happens a _lot_ )


	6. Uncle Jushtin (part 2)

Jushtin walked through Butterfly Castle, glancing around at the old, familiar passages that he hadn’t seen in years. The corridors were the same, but it looked different. Damaged. It was unnerving. Finally, he arrived in the War Room, where he’d been summoned by The Magical High Commission.

To say he was surprised was an understatement. Ever since his sister was born, they’d effectively ignored his existence, at least as a group. Reynaldo occasionally sent him blank post-cards, which was… thoughtful?, he supposed. What on Mewni the Commission wanted with him now, at such an old age, he had no idea.

Well, almost no idea. It was ridiculous to believe that they knew about the one communication he’d had with his niece almost half a year ago, but once the idea had popped into his head to make him nervous, it had refused to leave. He looked at the door, took a breath, then opened the door.

“Prince Jushtin,” Omnitraxis greeted, “good to see you.”

“Hello,” he nodded. “Nice to see you all again, after, what, two decades?”

He honestly wasn’t bitter at all, but the Commission seemed to take that to mean he was. Heckapoo shrugged, Omnitraxis coughed, and Rhombulus and Lehkmet shared a look. Reynaldo didn’t even acknowledge he’d spoken, too busy with some bundle he was carrying. Jushtin sighed.

“May I ask _why_ you summoned me?”

Heckapoo stood up from her seat. 

“Prince Jushtin, you know your niece, Queen Eclipsa, correct?” 

Jushtin stared at her. It was a standard question, but she’d phrased it so weirdly, and he need to say something to banish the sudden spike of dread at her serious tone. 

“I would… hope so?” Jushtin told her. “I only half-raised her.” 

“I’m afraid we have some bad news regarding her.” Heckapoo closed her eyes, and looked away. “She’s dead.” 

His heart stopped. 

“I’m… sorry?” Jushtin asked, numbly. This couldn’t be happening. Not again. Time seemed to slow down, as if his mother’s spirit was trying to help him process that impossible, _ridiculous_ statement. 

“The monster did it,” Rhombulous growled. “Not that it’s any sort of surprise! I knew he was evil.” 

How. How could. How could she be _dead?_ She had the wand, she’d been taught self-defense by his sister! 

Who had also been murdered, his brain reminded him unhelpfully. 

How could she be _**dead?!**_

“There was an altercation between her and her so-called monster lover,” Omnitraxis recounted. “It ended in tragedy, of course. He ate her, her husband, and attacked Spiderbite village.” 

_“Why?!”_ He blurted out. Sure, the Commission had gossiped about the possibility publicly, but _sti-_

Wait. 

_“Spiderbite Village?!”_ He yelled, jumping out of his chair. _“Are my grandchildren alright?!”_ Dear corn, Sebastian and his family lived there! 

__

“Whoa!” Heckapoo startled, holding her hands up. “Calm down!” 

__

“My niece is dead! My son and his family might also be dead! _You want me to calm down?!”_

__

“I thought you had two- nevermind.” Heckapoo sighed. “Most of everyone in Spiderbite Village is fine.” 

__

“Most?!” 

“We haven’t done an official headcount, yet!” Omnitraxis defended. “But the attack was centered on the castle that Shastacan was staying at, since that’s where Eclipsa fled to to try and save herself.” He sighed, then added under his breath, “Without considering the consequences, of course…” 

“Watch your tongue!” Jushtin snapped. “That’s my _recently deceased_ niece you’re talking about!” 

Oh corn, he’d _lost more family._ Eclipsa, possibly his youngest and his family, and… 

Meteora! He couldn’t even properly mourn Meteora, like the others! He wasn’t supposed to know about her! He sunk back into his chair, head in his hands. 

“It’s not entirely hopeless, though.” He lifted his head up to stare blankly at the Commission. 

“How?” he asked in a despairing tone. Couldn’t they let him mourn a minute?! 

Reynaldo finally walked forward, and held out the bundle to him. Jushtin gave him a strange look before standing up to take it. It made a noise and he nearly dropped it in shock. A baby?! _Meteora?!_ He freed the infants face and a baby that was very definitively not Meteora looked back at him. 

Her nose was too long, her eyes and hair were completely different colors, wrong skin tone. No monster features at all. 

But cheek marks. Diamonds. 

“Who…?” he asked, quietly. 

“Her name is Festivia,” Reynaldo told him. “She is Eclipsa’s daughter.” 

There was _nothing_ of Eclipsa in the baby he was holding. 

“How do you know? Where did you find her?” 

The Commission gave him a weird look, naturally. Only children of the Wielder of the Wand had proper cheek marks. He’d forgotten in his shock. 

“The Wand responds to her,” Heckapoo told him, “and she had cheek marks. She couldn’t be anyone’s _but_ Eclipsa’s.” 

Eclipsa had told him Meteora was her only child. She was obviously not pregnant, and Festivia looked nothing like her, with no monstrous features from her husband, either. 

Who _was she?_ How did she have cheek marks? How did the wand respond to her? 

“And,” Rhombulous added. “Eclipsa’s the one who brought her back.” 

“She’s why the monster snapped in the first place,” Omnitraxis told him. “He thought she was going to be his. As though her child wasn’t going to be with her actual husband.” 

…what? 

“Luckily, I took care of the raging beast _before_ he could directly hurt anyone!” Rhombulous bragged, then looked sheepish. “Except Shastacan. And, uh, Eclipsa.” 

What?! 

“He started a fire, though, which is why we still need to do a headcount…” 

Jushtin sat down hard. 

The Commission was _lying to him._ Why was the Commission lying to him?! He looked at Festivia again, who looked back at him and tilted her head, as though trying to figure him out while he tried to figure _her_ out. 

Who was she? Were the Commission planning on passing off this child as the daughter of Eclipsa and _Shastacan?!_ She looked even less like Shastacan than Eclipsa, and that was saying something! 

“...ruling in place of- are you even listening to us?” 

“No,” Jushtin said, still staring at Festivia. She blinked at him, and Jushtin felt his old heart melt against his will. Festivia was innocent in all this, whoever she was. 

_How did she have cheek marks?!_

Several of the Commission members groaned at his admission. 

“Would you pay attention?” 

“I am paying attention. To my grand-niece.” 

Lehkmet bah’d loudly and disapprovingly, and Jushtin flinched. He looked up, finally. 

“Yes?” he asked. 

__

“Alright, we’ll just cut to the chase then,” Heckapoo sighed. “Festivia is obviously too young to take the throne right now, so we’re doing something new here. _We,_ ” she gestured around the room, “will be in charge of Mewni until Festivia turns twenty, and then she’ll have a normal coronation, just like any Queen before her who _didn’t_ lose their mothers early.” 

“...what?” Jushtin asked, and Heckapoo sighed. 

She groaned. “ _But,_ and here’s the thing, ever since the MHC was formed, with one obvious exception, there’s never been a time where there wasn’t a Butterfly actively serving on the Commission.” 

“What?” he asked for what felt like the millionth time. There was _no way_ she was getting at what he thought she was, right? 

__

“We want you serving on the Commission until Festivia is of age to take over,” Omnitraxis told him. “But not a day more.” 

__

_“What?!”_ It wasn’t really a question anymore. He understood what they were saying. In principal, at least. But he was… he was the un-Queen. The Uncalculated mistake. No one wanted him in power, especially the Commission! They’d made that clear to him more than once in the past! 

__

“The people need a Butterfly. You’ll just have to do for now.” 

__

“I…” Jushtin needed time to process this all, damn it! 

__

Reynaldo stepped forward again, this time to take Festivia from him. Jushtin clung to the baby tighter, though with care not to upset her. His cheeks even glowed as he glared, _daring_ the giraffe-man to try and take her away from him. 

__

The Commission had lied through their teeth about his grand-niece without so much as blinking. He didn’t even know who this child _was._ But there was no way he was letting them take her away from him. Until he found her birth family, if they were even still alive, he would be her family. And he was sick of things taking his family away from him! 

__

His mother, his sister, one of his daughters, his oldest son, his niece, his grand-niece. 

__

Never again! 

__

Reynaldo paused and looked at the other members of the Commission. They smiled and shrugged. 

__

Jushtin wasn’t sure he liked that. 

__

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, this may end up being longer than a two-parter. But, I did promise Jushtin's timeline last time, so:  
> 14 - gains wand  
> 15 - loses wand, Solaria is born  
> 25 - meets Recluza  
> 29 - Solaria (age 14) gains wand  
> 31 - marries Recluza & moves to the Forest of Unlikely Spiderbites  
> 33 - first child  
> 36 - diplomatic mission (Solaria age 21)  
> 37 - second & third children -twins  
> 38 - Skywynne dies  
> 40 - Eclipsa is born, fourth (and last) child is born  
> 49 - third child dies (sick)  
> 49 (still) - Oldest child runs away from home after a bad fight with Jushtin (about third child's death)  
> 53 - Solaria (38) is killed, Eclipsa becomes queen  
> 55 - Eclipsa runs off with Globgor  
> 59 - Meteora is born  
> 60 - Jushtin meets Meteora via a spell from Eclipsa  
> 60 (still) - Eclipsa is 'killed by the Prince of Darkness', Globgor is 'killed', Meteora vanishes  
> 60 (still) - Jushtin meets Festivia, and is temporarily made a part of the MHC (does not find out about the crystalization or switch, but is secretly aware that Festivia and Meteora are (obviously) not the same person), not actually allowed to do anything, becomes parental figure for Festivia along with Recluza and MHC  
> 79 - dies (Festivia 19)  
> Obviously, some things worked out differently than in canon.
> 
> Cheek Mark magic works differently than in canon in my AU.
> 
> The idea of the MHC making up a story about Globgor being PO'd about Eclipsa's 'daughter' not being his and eating Eclipsa in retaliation is shadowed-dancer on tumblr's idea, not mine. (go look at her stuff, it's really good!)


	7. The Other Exchange Student outtakes

If Marco wasn’t going to take Tom at his word, and there was no way he would listen to anything he said now, he’d just have to get proof.  
….……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..  
All it took was a couple of internet searches to find out that Gustav was lying through his teeth about who he was, which was a little concerning. How had Marco not noticed this? Marco was smart!  
No, that didn’t matter. What mattered was that he had proof that Gustav wasn’t what he said he was… but would that be enough to prove to Marco that he was dangerous? Trying to find actual, _physical_ proof turned out to be the hardest part of Tom’s plan. Mostly because Marco had seemingly taken to guarding Gustav like he was some kind of watch dog, which only served to infuriate Tom more. As if he needed more proof that Marco had chosen this serial killer or whatever over him.  
Tom was starting to get nervous. His… confrontation with Gustav had been on Friday, which gave him until next Monday rolled around, then he’d have to leave the two of them alone. He didn’t know what Gustav was planning, but he definitely didn’t want him to succeed with whatever it was.

 

“Tom, I didn’t mean-”  
Tom turned and walked away without a word before Marco could say anything else. A few seconds later, Marco flinched at the sound of the front door slamming.  
Great.  
….……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………  
Tom kicked at the ground, not on fire for once but still leaving scorching footprints as he walked. He was furious, again, of course. That was absolutely the miserable emotion he was feeling right now. Nothing else. Not a chance.  
He’d been furious enough to tear up before! Shut up!  
It was late by the time Tom ended up at some sort of park. No one else was around, so he sat down at one of the picnic tables and slumped over, doing the tensing-relaxing thing Brian had taught him at some point.  
He hated this.  
Marco had told him over and over that he was okay with what happened, but that was apparently a _complete_ lie. Tom dug his claws into the wooden table, which started smoking, before continuing with the thing Brian taught him.  
He _hated_ this.  
Why did he keep messing this up? Marco was angry at him, _again,_ and he’d refused to believe Tom when he’d warned the human that he was in danger. Tom had _known_ Marco wouldn’t believe him. Why was this whole stupid thing so upsetting?   
Why had he left?! Gustav could be doing who knows what to Marco _right now!_  
Tom jerked so hard he nearly fell off the seat he was on when someone placed a hand on his shoulder.  
“Whoa!” a familiar voice shouted and grabbed him. Tom blinked, startled, before a feeling of inexplicable dread filled his stomach.  
Of _course_ Marco had come after him.  
“...hey,” Tom greeted, feeling ridiculous on account of him being more supported by Marco than anything else.  
“Hey,” Marco repeated, helping Tom get back to a normal sitting position. The demon scowled when he noticed Gustav nearby, not looking at him and looking about as happy about being there as Tom was. “…thanks for not setting the park on fire.”  
The statement was awkward and desperate. Tom could empathize. He chose not to, but he _could_ have.  
After a second, Marco sighed, walked over to Gustav, and dragged him back over to Tom, ignoring his protests.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My writing felt all over the place this chapter, especially for these outtakes (hence why they were cut, obviously). :/
> 
> As you can see, the chapter originally took place over a larger timeframe. I'm not sure why I changed that anymore, other than it being ridiculous that there wouldn't be another confrontation in that timeframe, probably.
> 
> More from Tom's perspective from the chapter!


	8. 7-11 Special

Katrina was chilling out on the Diaz’s couch watching some weird sitcom when someone started knocking on the door frantically. Seeing as how Marco was currently cooking something in the kitchen, Tom was in his room for some reason, and she was pretty sure the Diaz parents were doing… something upstairs, she tore herself away from Horse in a Bookcase and hopped off the couch.

“I’ll get it~!” she sing-songed and hopped to the door. She paused as she reached for the handle and checked through both the window and the mini-window on the door for spies before actually opening the door.

“Hi boys!” she chirped at Alfonzo and Ferguson, before gesturing at the TV. “You come here for the sitcom marathon?”

“What?” Ferguson asked, confused. “What sitcom- nevermind!” He grabbed her by the shoulders. “What are you doing __here?__ ”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Marco asked, peeking out of the kitchen as Ferguson shook the girl.

“Dude! What are __any__ of you doing here?! Don’t you know what day it is?!”

“...a Thursday?” Katrina guessed at random. She didn’t actually know what day of the week it was, but there was no harm in guessing, right?

“No,” Alfonzo started. “It’s the eleventh of July!”

There was a pause.

“...which means?” Marco asked, looking as confused as Katrina felt. At least that was her assurance that that wasn’t some major Earth holiday.

“What? Man! It’s Seven Eleven Day!”

“Like the gas station?” Marco asked, still hopelessly confused. Katrina was also confused. What the heck was a gas station?

“ _ _Yes__  like the gas station!” Ferguson said in exasperation.

“Did you not know about their special every year?” Alfonzo asked, and it looked like Ferguson might be the only one __not__  confused for any reason.

“They give out _free Slushies _,__  man! Free. Slushies.”

Marco blinked.

“Oh. Cool.”

“Literally!” Alfonzo tried to joke. He didn’t actually manage, but he deserved credit for at least trying. Marco ducked back into the kitchen.

“Come on,” Ferguson urged, “let’s go get some!”

“Dude, I’m cooking!”

“The special only goes on until seven!”

“Seven _pm?_ ” Marco asked, not leaving the kitchen this time.

“Yes!”

“It’s like _noon_  Ferguson!” Marco yelled from the kitchen. “We can all go later! I’m not burning my eggs because you wanted to drag me to a gas station that’s three miles away for a special that’s going on for seven more hours!”

“Wow,” Ferguson huffed. “Harsh, man.”

“Just watch TV with Katrina or something!”

“What’s going on up-” Tom started, peeking out of his room, then stopped when he saw Alfonzo and Ferguson. “Great. This is happening.”

“Hi Tom!” Katrina greeted. “Finally decided to join me?”

“...yeah,” he lied, glaring slightly at the two humans standing in Marco’s living room. “I love… whatever show you were watching.”

“You don’t even know what it was,” Katrina pointed out. Tom shrugged.

“Doesn’t matter, if you’re enjoying it, it has to be good.”

Ferguson made a gagging noise behind her and Tom glared.

“How about we wait for Marco to finish cooking… whatever he’s cooking, and then we all go together!” She didn’t know what a Slushie was, but she did know she wanted to try one!

“Okay!” Both humans agreed. Tom glared at them darkly (Katrina saw the reflection on Alfonzo’s glasses) then smiled sweetly and gave her a thumbs up when she turned to him.

She did miss Tom quickly slide his thumb in front of his throat at Ferguson when she bounced back to the TV, as well as Ferguson’s nervous gulp in response to it.

“Hey, could I call a couple of friends to get Slushies too?” Katrina asked as suddenly as the thought came to her.

“Who are you even asking?” Marco called from the kitchen. “I mean, you probably shouldn’t if they’re going to start a riot or something, but it’s your call?”

Tom looked thoughtful as well and started texting someone on his phone.

“Who are you talking to?” Ferguson, having noticed as well, asked unthinkingly. Tom growled.

“None of your business. Hey! Get your hand out of my face before I BITE IT OFF!”

Katrina wasn’t sure, but she thought she heard Marco groaning from the kitchen.

//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

“Whyyy are we waaaaalking…” Alfonzo groaned.

“Because you two wanted to get free stuff from a gas station, and there’s no way I’m bugging my parents while they’re painting. Not again. _Never again_.” Marco shuddered. Katrina and Tom shared a look, neither knowing nor _wanting_  to know what he was talking about.

“But you have a bike!” Ferguson complained.

“You wanted to try fitting all five of us on Marco’s bike?” Tom asked, confused and mildly disgusted.

“We should have taken my parents’ van,” Alfonzo groaned, weakly shaking his fist at the sky. “Why does the sun hate meeeee…”

“Maybe all the usual reasons,” Tom muttered quietly, though he still got elbowed by Katrina. “Oof! Ugh. Where are they?” he muttered, taking out his phone. “I thought they said they’d be-”

“Hey boys.”

Marco shrieked and jumped two feet back, crashing into Alfonzo sending them both to the ground.

“J-Jackie!” Marco yelped as the girl in question offered him a hand up. Marco didn’t seem to realize that that was what she was doing, because he didn’t move from his spot and instead pointed at her. “You’re uh, here! Right now! For some reason! What a surprise! HAHAHA!” Jackie just raised an eyebrow, before grabbing Marco’s hand and pulling him up.

“Oh, yeah, Tom texted Janna about the free Slushie thing and we decided to join you boys.”

“I’m here too!”

“Hey Katrina,” Janna waved.

“WOW! THAT’S GREAT!” Marco whirled on his friends, a too-big grin stuck on his face as he pseudo-glared at Tom through the unnerving grin. “WHAT A GREAT IDEA! THANK YOU SO MUCH TOM!”

Tom smiled and shrugged shamelessly.

Katrina huffed.

“Where are _my_  guests?” she asked the universe. The universe promptly answered her.

“Are you sure this is the right dimension?” a female voice asked skeptically.

“Yes!” a male voice answered, insulted. “Am I to fathom that you’re doubting my ability to use my own Portal Generator? I am perfectly capable of of getting from one dimension to another with enough accuracy-”

“I still think it would save a lot of trouble for you to just switch to Dimensional Scissors,” the female voice said. “Seriously. They sell them at Quest Buy.”

“Hogwash!”

“They sell _everything_  at Quest Buy! They have to!”

“A-ha! So you admit you don’t know-”

“REDD! JULIAN!” Katrina yelled, startling Tom by jumping on his shoulders and waving at two somewhat distant figures. They were impossible to miss, with Julian’s non-Earth hair color and Redd’s being an anthropomorphic squirrel. “OVER HERE!”

“Ah!” Julian’s figure turned towards Redds’s, and he was probably giving her a smug grin. “I told you, did I no-”

“Oh, save it!” Redd snapped, before running at Katrina and waving herself. “Yo, Katrina!” Julian’s triumphant expression fell slightly as his obvious triumph went either ignored or unnoticed, his shoulders sagging for a second before he jogged towards the girls.

Katrina hugged Redd, who awkwardly patted her back before untangling her as Julian caught up. He looked nervously at the crowd.

“Ah. I don’t think I got word that there would be quite such a large gathering of people,” he said quietly, before putting on a charming smile. “Greetings! I am, er I mean, my name is Julian Sugar, it’s pleasing to make your acquaintance!”

“Hey. I’m Redd. Nice to meet’cha.”

There was a round of greetings directed at the newcommers from Mewni.

“Alright, so we’re all together,” Janna said, looking over the group that had almost doubled. “Are we going to get our free drinks or not?”

//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

The cashier had stared, startled, at the group, but ultimately decided she didn’t care as they went in, grabbed their tiny free Slushies, and left with minimal fanfare. The only real problem had been that some members of their group hadn’t understood that, no, you didn’t get to choose your size, only the special tiny cups were free, you had to pay for anything bigger and none of them had money. That had been met with groans and complaints, but ultimately nothing disastrous that she’d have to fix happened, so she didn’t care.

Outside on a nearby hill, the group was enjoying their treats. Well, most of them.

“Bleh,” Julian muttered. “I think I choose poorly. This doesn’t taste like cherries at all!”

“You wanna swap?” Redd asked, eyebrow raised as she offered her own cup. Julian cringed.

“No. Um. Thank you. I shall pass. You can just have it.”

Redd snorted.

“Your loss.”

 

“Haha, yes! Slushies!” Alfonzo waved his spoon-straw thing in the air. “My reward for being beaten down by the heat! I’ve beaten you, sun!”

“Are you… Dude are you yelling at the sun?” Marco asked as Ferguson poked his friend. “Maybe you should have spent more time in the store. Out of the heat.”

“Huh,” Ferguson said, “I actually don’t think he’s spent this much time outside in this temperature, actually. Maybe we _should_  have gotten his mom to drive…”

 

“Enjoying your frozen soda, Tom?” Katrina asked, sliding next to the demon.

“Yeah,” the demon answered, raising one of his eyebrows.

“You’re still a coward for not getting the mystery flavor.”

“I’ll live,” he shrugged. "I was just really in the mood for a soda, honestly.” He looked at her. “So what is the mystery flavor, anyway?”

“That’s for me to know and you to not know,” she smiled. Tom flushed slightly at the sight, then looked down at his own drink.

“ARGH!”

Katrina blinked and several of the others looked over.

“What?”

“I melted my drink!” he groaned. Katrina chuckled.

“Well, looks like you got your soda after all!”

Tom groaned again.

“No sympathy. No sympathy at _all_.”

Katrina just giggled.

 

“Wanna try melting Marco’s Slushie?” Janna grinned and nudged Jackie.

“...what?” Jackie asked, confused. She glanced at Marco, who was currently trying to fan Alfonzo, who was lying on the ground and possibly unconscious. Wait, no, he was chuckling. Not passed out yet. “Yikes. Maybe he _should_  go inside.”

Janna just sighed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HAPPY SLUSHIE DAY!
> 
> This feels incomplete but 7/11 ends in two minutes take it as is please. EDIT: DANG IT OKAY NEVERMIND EDITING SOME STUPID FORMATTING CHANGED THE CHAPTER DATE COME ON!! EDIT2: Frick it, I'm editing the date because that's the thing you can do for some reason.
> 
> Really late-game season 1. Possibly non-cannon. We'll see after I finish season 1.


	9. Burning Night outtake

“That’s going to leave a scar,” Redd grinned at her, though the grin was forced through obvious pain. “Cool.” Redd winced at the way her voice cracked briefly. “…please get me out of here.”

“Right! Right right right…” Katrina muttered over and over. The debris had obviously fallen off of the burning building to pin her, and it was hot. She took a breath in and tried to force the debris off, gritting her teeth and trying to ignore the immediate ouch-hot-burning-stop sensation that blossomed in her hands. There was a crack, and the two girls looked up in horror as some more burning debris came at them. Redd grabbed Katrina, twisting as much as she could to try and block the younger girl from the debris.  
As it turned out, she didn’t need to. The debris never hit them. Katrina cracked an eye open after a few seconds and was shocked to see Julian, a pained expression on his face, having physically blocked the falling bits of building himself. A second later he fell on his knees, gripping his shoulder and hissing in pain.  
Katrina froze (how had he even managed to block that?), before wiggling out of Redd’s grip and looking around quickly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *shrugs* Sorry, that's all I got for now. Normally I'd try to say _something_ about the content, but I've been weirdly out of it, sorry.


	10. Uncle Jushtin (part 3)

Recluza Spiderbite-Butterfly stepped gracefully and silently through the halls of Butterfly castle. The halls, once dusty from disuse after Eclipsa had left for one reason or another and her annoying cousin (rest his soul) had unfortunately returned to the Spiderbite Kingdom, had been cleaned back to the standards of the Butterfly family.

She was not, technically speaking, supposed to be here yet. The ‘official’ move to the castle was not for a few days more, but she’d decided to try to familiarize herself with the castle before then. It would be just embarrassing to get lost, even if it would be brushed off as her age. In fact, that would probably just make it more embarrassing.

She flittered through the halls like a ghost, none of the few servants currently in the castle noticing her, with how busy they were with their work. Finally she arrived at a particularly ornate door. She put a hand to it, and put and ear to it as well. Once she was sure the room was empty, or at least the occupants were sufficiently distracted, she’d go in.

It was not empty.

“So, it definitely worked, right?” a male voice she didn’t recognize asked someone else. Sensing that she _did not want to open this door,_ she instead chose to stay and listen.

“Yes, Rhombulous,” a female voice, sounding like she was answering the same question for perhaps the sixth or seventh time, sighed. “I’m sure. Her cheek marks are still there, no sign of fading. The ritual worked perfectly.”

‘Her cheek marks’? Recluza pursed her lips. Whatever this was, it likely had to do with her new grand-niece. She hadn’t yet met Festivia personally, but her husband had told her all about her.

 _All_ about her. Much like how he’d told her _all_ about Meteora several months ago.

Wait. …fading?

“I’m surprised we managed to modify the ritual correctly, in all honesty,” a second male voice said. “No one’s ever managed to ‘create’ a Butterfly before.”

“Uh, I thought it was technically Jushtin who did that?” the voice that had been labeled ‘Rhombulous’ chimed in, making Recluza’s eyes narrow. What was he going on about? “Did I miss something?” There was a goat noise of all things that followed that. “Oh. Right. Duh.”

Recluza cursed internally. The dumb one didn’t seem to have any more questions, meaning she wasn’t going to learn anything else that way. She also had no idea what the goat bleating was about.

These people, whoever they were (the Magical High Commission, perhaps?) had apparently _used_ her Jushtin for something, something likely regarding the newest member of her family. They would regret that. Butterflys loved hard, and Spiderbites never forgot, and she had been both for a very long time.

There was the sound of scraping chairs and footsteps approaching her, and she turned and fled the hallway. No one ever knew she was there.

….………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

“Jushtin, Sweetiefly, could you spare a minute?”

Jushtin looked grateful as he looked away from a large pile of papers, most of them damaged, ranging from lightly charred to almost illegibly burnt, and towards his wife instead.

“Of course!” he grinned. “I’ll always have a minute for you, Reccy. Lots of them!”

“It’s about what you told me about a bit ago. About your grand-niece.”

Jushtin’s face went comically blank. Sadly, this wasn’t a very funny situation.

“Oh.”

Recluza stepped quietly into the room, making sure the door was sealed and the room impossible to eavesdrop on. It was something of a specialty of hers.

“I was in the castle yesterday and overheard a fairly interesting discussion.” She recounted to her husband what she’d heard, and Jushtin looked thoughtful.

“Yeah, that was definitely the Commission you heard, you’re right,” he nodded, then went back to his papers. Recluza stared at him, then sighed.

“Alright, and _why_ aren’t you more upset? They used you.” Her voice had a dangerous edge to it that most people would probably have completely missed.

“Knowing that actually helps!” he said cheerfully. “I’m trying to find Festivia’s birth family, and now I know how they found a baby with cheek marks! They didn’t!”

Recluza hummed.

“Since when are you the pragmatic one?” she asked. Jushtin had known her long enough to know that, despite her deadpan tone, she was teasing. He grinned in response.

“Pragmatic? Moi?” he put both hands to his chest. “Perish the thought that I would ever encroach on your territory, Spiderkisses!”

Recluza snorted at the nickname.

“You’re ridiculous,” she observed, then walked over to look at what he had been looking at. “Birth records. Festivia?”

“I was looking for ones with unusual features at birth, specifically.” He sighed. “Not that most people actually report those. Mostly it’s just thinly-veiled accusations of infidelity.”

“Charming.”

“But, now I know she wasn’t born with her marks, so these won’t do me any good.” He shrugged, then started to gather the papers up. “I don’t have a clue about where to even start looking for Meteora.” He shook his head, doubt creeping into his eyes and Recluza silently vowed to murder the MHC someday for causing this. She knew she’d never manage it, but swearing vengeance made her feel a little better. “I have no idea what could have even happened to her. Did the Commission do something to her? Did they even know she existed? Could someone unrelated have kidnapped her?” He shook his head, trying to calm himself down and failing. “What if no one but us even knows she exists? What if she’s hidden in a nursery somewhere, waiting and wondering where her parents are… God, if that’s the case she’s probably already starved to-!”

“Jushtin,” Recluza said softly, putting her hand on his and squeezing hard enough to make him flinch. “Stop.”

“...she’s family Reccy. I can’t lose anyone else.”

“We’ll find her.”


	11. Chapter 9 outtakes

Trio Meet Take 2:

“What?” Tom answered innocently, snapping himself out of… whatever that was as Marco glared suspiciously. After a few seconds, Marco shook his head, walked over to the palm tree the girl was currently hissing at them from, and gave it two hard kicks with the bottom of his foot. There was a yelp, and the girl fell out of the tree- directly on top of Marco. Tom winced.

“Are… you oka-”

“ARGH!” Marco yelled suddenly, and Tom stared as he and the girl wrestled on the ground. “What the heck?! Did you seriously just bite me?!”

“You knocked me out of a __tree!__ ” the girl snapped. “I could have died or something, probably!”

“You wouldn’t have died!” Marco snapped back, rolling the two of them so he was on top of her. “Just… maybe gotten injured. And you attacked us, so I don’t know what you were expecting!”

There was some more wrestling, and Marco finally managed to pin the girl.

“Fine!” She yelled. “Uncle! Let me up already!”

“No way, I have a lot of questions-”

“Oh come on, Marco. Show a little respect.”

“ _ _Huh?!__ ” Marco turned to gape at Tom, who was frowning at __Marco, specifically.__  “What the heck, Tom?!”

Tom didn’t answer, instead opting to pull Marco off the girl he had pinned and offering her a hand up.

“I am so sorry about him,” Tom told her as she cautiously took his outstretched hand. Marco just continued to gape in shock at him as Tom asked the girl if she was okay. She just looked slightly unnerved.

“It’s… fine.”

((note to self: good try at getting Tom’s line. stick with the first one))

 

 

 

 

Katrina's musings Take ~~2~~ 1

Of course, the wand would be too heavily guarded for Ludo to attack then. He might try, but she doubted her Dad would be willing to obey that order or let her go either. So she might never see the boys again, which would be kind of a shame, probably.

“So… smoothies?” she asked after a second. Tom looked relieved for the distraction and Marco nodded.

“Yeah, the place is right over-”

“Uh, Marco?” Tom interrupted. Marco looked at Tom, who pointed. Marco looked where he was pointing and gaped.

“Whoa,” he said at the burning wreckage of a building. “What the heck happened?”

“I’m guessing… a fire,” Katrina observed. Marco sighed.

“No kidding.” He turned around. “Well, that was the smoothie place, so…”

“Well, it’s not like it’s the __only__  place that sells smoothies,” Tom pointed out.

“Why does it have to be smoothies, specifically?” Katrina wondered out loud. “I mean, I’m good for any free food you guys are offering.” Marco sighed.

“Yeah, sure. We can get fast food. That’s nice and __cheap__.” He threw some kind of look at Tom on that last bit, who just threw an annoyed look back at Marco.

“Oh, and three smoothies wouldn’t have been?”

“ _ _Boys!__ ” Katrina interjected. “I don’t care!”

(note to self: nope)

 

“Well, you can stay with us until then!” Tom offered and Marco rolled his eyes. Of course Tom would have picked up on his parents hospitality at this point- or maybe he hadn’t, and was hoping Marco could convince them that he coul-

“WHAT THE HECK!” Marco yelled. He’d no sooner opened the door to his house then he saw Janna on the couch, eating his favorite chips. “JANNA!”

“Oh, hey, welcome back.” Janna didn’t even have the decency to look away from her phone.

“Oh, hey, don’t think I’ve met you yet!” Katrina said. This time Janna actually did look up from her phone.

“Hey. I’m Janna.”

“Do you live here too?” Katrina asked, tilting her head slightly in confusion. She was pretty sure she hadn’t seen her around, but she was still curious as to what she was doing here.

“No she does not!” Marco snapped irritably. “How did you even get in here?!”

“Came in through your window,” she said casually, going back to her phone.

“My w- My window is on the second floor!”

“Yep. You really need to start locking it, by the way. You make this way too easy.”

“Make __what__  too easy?! Home invasion?!”

“Yeah, basically.”

Behind Marco, Katrina looked at Tom and motioned questioningly at the two as Marco continued to… berate Janna? Maybe? And Janna seemingly ignored him, save for the occasional comment to rile Marco up more that proved she was, in fact, listening. Tom just made a face and gestured vaguely at her with a shrug, which answered all of nothing. She huffed silently and turned back to the two and took a breath, preparing to dive into the sort-of-maybe-argument.

“Oh, Marco you’re back!” a voiced called from the kitchen area and his dad stepped out. “I was wondering where you were.”

“Dad! What the heck, why is Janna on the couch?!”

“We established this,” Janna sighed. “I came in through your window. Sheesh, learn to pay attention, Diaz.”

Marco glared at her for a second before turning back to his dad.

“Why didn’t you kick her out?!”

“Why would we kick one of your friends out of the house while she was waiting for you?” Marco’s dad asked, sounding genuinely confused. Marco sighed, defeated.

“She’s not my- ugh.” He looked at Janna. “Seriously, __why__  are you here?”

“Felt like it.”

Marco felt a major headache coming on.

“Well could you __leave__  maybe?”

“Rude. I’m perfectly comfy here.”

Marco was about to comment again when the sound of a portal opening gave him pause. The standing trio looked at each other than headed towards the source of the sound, and Janna hopped off the couch and followed as well. Marco’s dad watched them head towards the backyard, shrugged, and went back into the kitchen.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm going to afk on Wednesday, enjoy an early update!
> 
> One of the earliest things I imagined for this AU was Tom basically falling in love (or at least in crush) with Katrina at first sight, because of course he would. I had a very vivid image of Marco pinning Katrina to the ground after a fight and Tom trying to sort of white knight the situation for her, to Marco's total confusion. When I actually tried to write the scene... uh... you see. V_V; It didn't come out right.
> 
> I have no idea how the smoothie place burned down, hence rewriting the scene. It came right the frick out of nowhere. :?
> 
> And, like I mentioned, this is the second time I tried to introduce Katrina and Janna. At least it got past just the idea that it would be a good time to do it, this time. Then I remembered the pumpkins. Also, it felt awkward shoving her into the scene with the revelation to the boys that she's Buff Frog's daughter, so...


	12. Uncle Jushtin (part 4)

“Welcome to Mewni Castle, mi’lord and mi’lady!” The head servant, Andrew Frobisher, bowed and gestured to the still-shut doors of the castle. Jushtin looked at his old home for a second, but there wasn’t much to see since he’d been back not long ago. Still, he felt a brief pang of nostalgia, though it faded far more quickly than before.

He gave a side glance at Recluza next to him, and it was still so unusual to see her decked out in _bright colors_ , or in a dress with such a wide skirt, for that matter. She seemingly sensed him looking at her and looked at him, then shrugged very, very slightly.

“Your things have already been taken to your room, shall I lead you there, Your Graces?”

“I know how to-” Jushtin started, before getting his foot subtly stomped on by his wife.

“That would be lovely, thank you.” Frobisher looked unnerved by her tone. Specifically, her seeming lack of one. Their servants back in The Forest of Unlikely Spiderbites were more than used to it, but it looked like they were back to square one on that front.

Ah well. They’d learn.

The couple followed Frobisher to what had once been Jushtin’s royal chambers what felt like a lifetime ago. The plush rug and extravagant bedding were both a dark green, and the Spiderbite crest was strung up over the door. Jushtin practically flung himself onto the bed. He really wished they’d just used Dimensional Scissors to get to the castle, the ride had been so _boring_ all he wanted to do was sleep. Why did they travel any way other than by Dimensional Scissors, again?

“Sweetiefly-”

“No, let me have this,” Jushtin groaned. “I’m tired and the seats in that carriage _sucked_. I wish I had the wand. I invented the _perfect_ spell for carriage seats like that and I _couldn’t even cast it_.” He burred his face in the bed.

Recluza pat her husband on the back sympathetically. She didn’t have the heart to remind him that he could do magic wandlessly. 

Truth be told, she felt the same way (sort of), but she felt Jushtin was expressing their frustrations well enough for both of them. 

Something he’d said did make her curious, though.

“Where is the wand, anyway?” she asked and Jushtin said nothing for a second then twisted onto his back before sitting up.

“I’m not sure.” He sighed. “The MHC didn’t tell me anything about it, but if it was missing they’d have said something to me, right?”

There was a pause, then Justhin groaned.

“Great. Another really important thing to look for.”

….………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

The couple rested for a while, before heading out to meet the Magical High Commission in the War Room (which really just seemed to be more of a general meeting area, in both of their opinions).

“We have our questions listed, correct?” Recluza asked, and Jushtin nodded before bringing out a piece of paper from his pocket containing a number of things the two had made plans to ask about, before unfolding it and giving it a glance over.

“Yep!” he told her cheerfully and Recluza nodded back.

“Excellent.” She took his free hand and squeezed it for a second, before easing her grip slightly. Jushtin smiled at her reassuringly, and she looked at the door. “Alright. Let’s start this meeting, shall we?”

The door swung open.

“Hello!” Jushtin greeted cheerfully as the High Commission looked at them. “Nice to see you all!”

“Greetings Duchess and Duke Spiderbite,” Omnitraxis said as the Commission stood. Jushtin blinked at the sound of a baby from Heckapoo’s arms, and Recluza squeezed his hand again to get him to focus. He resisted the urge to pout because _‘baby!’_ , but did manage to focus. “Are you settling in well?”

“It is satisfactory, thank you,” Recluza said, and several members of the High Commission looked as unnerved as Frobisher had been. She looked at Heckapoo, or rather at the baby in her arms. “That is Festivia, correct?”

“Yes,” Heckapoo said, recovering slightly, “this is the next queen of Mewni.”

Recluza nodded sharply.

“I would like to hold her,” she told Heckapoo, who looked reluctant.

“I’m not sure that’s a good idea.”

“I have had four children and seven grandchildren,” she said. “I can hold one more. Unless you believe there is a reason to not, in which case, please, feel free to share.”

Heckapoo looked even more uncomfortable for being put on the spot.

“...no, go ahead.”

Recluza took the infant from Heckapoo and sat down, examining her. Festivia smiled up at her and waved an arm in her face. Recluza didn’t smile. It wouldn’t do to do so quite so publicly, after all. Instead, she carefully brushed one of Festivia’s hairs out of her face. She glanced back at the Commission, and the giraffeman quickly stepped forward to retrieve the baby. Recluza’s eyes turned icy and he froze in turn and stepped back.

Jushtin cleared his throat.

“Um, I was wondering something?” he started, gaining the attention of the Commission. “I was wondering, do we know where Glossaryk is? Or the wand, for that matter?”

“Indeed we do,” Omnitraxis told him. “However, since Festivia is hardly old enough to inherit them, they, er, the book and the wand that is, are currently being held safely under our lock and key. They’ll be safe until she’s old enough for them but until then, we’re keeping them away from prying eyes.”

Jushtin frowned.

“Where?”

“That’s on a need to know basis only, pal!”

“I’m a part of the Commission now!” Jushtin argued. “Isn’t keeping them safe part of my job in this case?”

“Your position is only ceremonial,” Heckapoo said, crossing her arms. “You don’t need to know.”

“Don’t need to- H-Poo, those are my family’s artifacts!”

Lehkmet baa’d. There was a pause, then Recluza sighed and looked at the Commission.

“Translation, please?”

“He said ‘and they’ll be returned to your family as soon as possible, but until then they need to be kept safe’.” Rhombulous translated. “So butt out!” He paused. “Uh, that last bit was me.”

Jushtin scowled for a minute before sighing. He had an idea about where they might be, but the Magical High Commission would obviously be fighting them every step of the way on this.

“Alright,” Recluza conceded. “My husband and I would like to arrange a funeral for Eclipsa and Shastacan. Can we expect your aid on this matter?”

“But Eclipsa is-!”

“Someone who came to her senses last minute, isn’t she?” Recluza arched an eyebrow at Rhombulous’s outburst. “I fail to see how honoring her memory in private at the least would be in any way inappropriate.”

“You plan on holding a funeral with no body to speak of?” Reynaldo asked, finally speaking up.

“A memorial, then. Thinking on it, that may be better. If you could direct us to the place where the Prince of Darkness did the terrible deed, we could hold it there.”

“There?! Why would you want to have a memorial there?!”

“It’s a Spiderbite tradition,” Recluza lied smoothly and easily. “When a family member’s life is struck down early, you have a service or bury them where it happened. Some superstitious nonsense about their spirit lingering where it happened and helping them move on. I don’t buy it for a second, of course. Still, it’s important.”

“Eclipsa was a Butterfly.”

“And Shastacan was not. Neither am I. As we,” she nodded at Jushtin, “are her closest living family capable of doing such, it falls on our shoulders to do this. I would, of course, be perfectly fine with mixing traditions. However, the location is something I will not budge on. Surely, you would not deny us this small consolation for our tragic loss?”

The MHC members traded nervous, uncomfortable looks.

“...okay. Sure. We’ll show you,” Heckapoo conceded. “But not for a few days?”

“Why the wait?” Recluza asked. “We could be ready to leave in a hours time, all we really need to do is hand Festivia over to a nurse.”

“Because. It. Uh.” Omnitraxis tried and failed to answer.

“Because it’s way too horrible!” Rhombulous blurted out. Everyone looked at him. “It’s. Uh. Really, really gory there! You guys are definitely going to need time to mentally prepare yourself. There’s blood and guts everywhere!”

Recluza and Jushtin both gasped dramatically. Well, Jushtin was far more dramatic, but for her, Recluza’s gasp was fairly over-the-top.

“Well in that case, by all means!” Jushtin assured him. “We’ll take a few days to do just that!”

The brief look of relief on the impossibly easy to read nearly faceless crystal was missed by neither of them.

“I was wondering about something else, though,” Jushtin started. “Where has Festivia been staying? I’d be more than happy to take my last blood relative in, but none of you asked for some reason?”

“She’s been staying with us, and will continue to do so for a few more weeks.”

“But where?” Jushtin insisted. “She’s my family, I need to know where she is, especially so soon after Eclipsa’s murder!”

Reynaldo sighed.

“Very well. We have set a room up for her specifically in the Bureaucracy of Magic. Sean has been looking over her when we aren’t.”

Jushtin put on an exaggeratedly-horrified face.

“You’ve been keeping my great-niece, my sister Solaria’s _granddaughter_ , in that stone cottage?!”

“It was always temporary!”

“Shouldn’t one of royal blood be treated with more respect?” Recluza asked. The subtle changes in their expressions were telling. All of them here knew Festiva was _not_ of royal blood, but watching the Commission work to hide that fact from them was amusing.

“What could be more respectful for a temporary home than the Bureaucracy of Magic itself?” Omnitraxis asked.

“An actual castle,” Jushtin told them. “With family living in it. Like ours?”

Rhombulous slammed his hands on the table, both of whom went from snickering to complaining about abuse.

“You?!” he snapped. “We don’t need a monster sympathizer un-queen being the main person raising her! You’re already going to be getting a ton of access to her now that we’re all holed up in this castle together, there’s no way we’re risking letting you raise her wrong all by yourself-”

Lehkmet let out a baa of obvious disapproval and Rhombulous flinched.

“What, somebody had to say it! He was employing monsters in that castle of his up until the second monster war, and even after it! For all we know, he’s the reason Eclipsa turned out-”

“Stop,” Jushtin snapped, tone icier than any of the Commission members had ever heard it. “Just stop there. I am not, **not** , having this argument _ever_ again. Understand?” His glare froze the startled Commission in place. “I thought, after everything I did to help Mewni during my sister’s war, I had earned the right not to be questioned on this, at the _least_.” Rhombulous shrunk back and Jushtin sighed, slumping into his chair. “My loyalty is to my family and to Mewni. _Always_.”

There was a pause.

“...sorry,” Rhombulous finally said. “I didn’t mean it like that.”

“Are you?” Recluza asked flippantly. “If you are, perhaps you wouldn’t mind letting us take care of Festivia as you move in, then?” The Commission snapped around to look at her apparent audacity.

“Er, all on your own?” Omnitraxis asked.

“Oh, of course not,” Recluza smiled. “You see, my youngest child and his family lost their home in the fire at Spiderbite Village. It seemed only prudent to offer them one of the many empty rooms here.” She smiled serenely at the Commission’s outrage. “I fail to see the problem. I miss my family, they need a home, and we have plenty of rooms. They shouldn’t bother you all that much, I would surmise, and they are very much nobles. What is the problem?”

The Commission traded looks, unable to come up with an answer for a few seconds.

“You shouldn’t have offered without getting our permission first,” Heckapoo finally said.

“It is _our_ castle by birthright, you just live here,” Recluza said, tone polite as she once again nodded at her husband. “We are the ones who decide who lives here. Need I remind you that you had to pitch the idea of living here to my Jushtin first?” Jushtin smiled and the Commission repressed scowls. They had need to do that first, she wasn’t wrong and she knew it and knew that they knew it too. “Then if you can think of no other objections?”

“...fine,” Heckapoo sighed. “I guess that really is your business, so long as they don’t bother us with our work _and_ ,” she looked at Jushtin firmly. “They are not informed of any Commission-level matters.”

Jushtin nodded and saluted at the same time.

“Of course. My lips? Completely sealed on the secret stuff.”

Heckapoo sighed and placed her head in her hands. This wasn’t what was supposed to happen. _They_ were the ones who were supposed to dictate terms to the Duchess and Duke, not the other way around and yet they’d barely gotten a word in!

“I guess we’re done here,” she said, just wanting to leave the meeting already. She had things she needed to do back in her own dimension before moving in and this Recluza was controlling the meeting far more than she’d anticipated her to. They were even going to leave with Festivia!

“If that’s what you want,” Jushtin nodded.

“Fine then,” Reynaldo cut in. “Meeting adjourned!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I saw at one point (or several) the idea that the... this era Spiderbites might have had a gothic aesthetic and I am _absolutely_ down for that. Hence why Recluza looks weird to Jushtin in more typical 1800s esc clothes.
> 
> I actually have a picture of what Recluza looks like in this chapter, but it's not finished yet. >.>
> 
> Recluza speaks in more-or-less monotone, or at least it sounds that way to people who don't spend much time with her. She's actually a lot more expressive than she used to be (much like how Jushtin has calmed down a good bit), but she strives to appear calm and collected At All Times so most indicators of her mood are small. Her family can understand her easy enough, of course.
> 
> Jushtin _you have a magic butterfly form_.
> 
> Rhombulous seems to have struck something of a wrong note with Jushtin. _Gee I wonder why..._
> 
> ...is it obvious I have no idea how to write the MHC yet?


	13. Brittany's Party Outtake

“Nah, I got it,” Tom told him and held up a hand. Before Marco could ask what the heck he was doing, Tom snapped his fingers, and then there was _fire everywhere_  and then they were back in Tom’s room. Marco noticed out of the corner of his eye that the dress Sabrina had gotten Brittany and the necklace he’d bought were lying haphazardly on Tom’s bed like they’d been tossed there without looking.

“Are you okay?” Tom asked nervously before Marco could get his barings any further. “I didn’t fry you, did I? I didn’t- I didn’t even think of that until I actually flashed us back.”

“I’m fine,” Marco told him, before a hint of confusion hit him. “Flashed?”

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not much to this outtake I'm afraid... >.> I don't have a lot of content ready to go in general, actually... V.V; I've been running on empty for a while and while I should be able to post one more chapter to Refractions, I don't know if I'll have anything else for the following week DX
> 
> Sorry.


	14. Uncle Jushtin (part 5)

“Can I hold her now Reccy _pleeease?_ ”

Recluza rolled her eyes at her husband’s childishness, which caused her to spot something.

“I don’t think that would be wise,” she told him. Jushtin huffed.

“And why n-”

“GRANDPA!”

Jushtin was promptly tackled by a little girl not quite half his height. He shrieked slightly and Recluza held her breath as he nearly fell to the hard stone floor, letting the breath out when he managed to catch himself.

“Tanny!” he said cheerfully as he hugged his granddaughter. “It’s so great to see you!”

“Tanny Theresa Spiderbite!” a new voice scolded, “I have told you multiple times not to tackle your poor Grandpa! He is old and frail!”

Jushtin pouted.

“I’m not _that_  frail, Chloris,” he told his daughter-in-law, who was giving her daughter a disapproving look. Tanny mimicked her grandfather and pouted.

“Yeah, he can take a hug, mommy!” Tanny insisted, and Chrloris just shook her head.

“What am I going to do with you?” she sighed.

“Love her, cherish her, keep her forever?” a male voice suggested as it’s owner casually strolled around the corner. “Hi mom, hi dad.” He nodded at Recluza’s arms. “That the new addition to the family?”

Tanny gasped and ran over to Recluza, tugging on her dress surprisingly lightly for all her eager energy.

“Is that my new cousin?! Can I see, Gramma? Can I see?!” She was practically jumping up and down, earning a rare smile from her grandmother.

“Tanny, _please_ ,” Chloris implored, obviously embarrassed. “Calm down and I’m sure Gramma will let you meet her.”

“Alright,” Jushtin said, clapping his hands together. “How about we head to your rooms and we introduce you there?” Chloris nodded, still looking embarrassed, and Sebastian gave him a thumbs up.

“Tanny, sweetie,” Sebastian called to his daughter, who stopped her bouncing to look at him. “We’re going back to our part of the castle, and then you can meet your cousin, okay?”

The little girl considered this for a second, before nodding, hugging her gramma’s legs, and running back past her parents.

“Come on, come on! Let’s goooo!” Tanny all but whined then ran off, with Jushtin quickly going after her to keep her from getting lost.

Sebastian shook his head and chuckled while Chloris looked back apologetically.

“Sorry, she’s been a little… stir-crazy, during the move.”

“I can see that,” Recluza said and Festivia gurgled, apparently agreeing. She look at her son and daughter-in-law. “Well, shall we follow them?”

….……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

The part of the castle that Sebastian, Chloris, and Tanny were staying in were similar to Jushtin and Recluza’s, albeit with more rooms that were smaller.

“Not bad, if a little barren,” Chloris said.

“That just means you get to decorate,” Jushtin told her. “I’m definitely gonna!”

“Yes!” Tanny exclaimed. “I’m gonna get a swing!”

“No you are not,” Chloris muttered under her breath, before adding in a more audible tone, “Is there anything else you might want, sweetie?”

Tanny paused.

“...a rocking horse?” she asked. “Mr. Horsey burnt up.”

“That should be doable,” Jushtin told his granddaughter. “Say, how about we head out towards the village and go looking for one?” Tanny brightened.

“Really?! Right now?!” she asked, bouncing on her heels. Jushtin glanced back up at Recluza and gave her a wink, she responded with a thumbs up. Jushtin looked back at Tanny and nodded.

“Yep! How about we leave Gramma and your Mommy and Daddy to talk about boring adult stuff, while the two of us go, m’kay?”

“Okay!” the five-year-old agreed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you're all wondering why this is so short, it's because I didn't have anything finished for this week, so I had to split it to get anything out on time. >.<
> 
> The astute among you might notice that Sebastian (Jushtin and Recluza's youngest child) should be _way_ to young to have a five year old child. And you would be right! The common theory/gossip is that the two got married early (and they were fairly young to marry) because they realized Tanny was, ahem, on the way. This theory is bs, on account of Tanny having been three years old when they married. She's actually Chloris's second cousin, who was orphaned a few years ago. Sebastian and Chloris have been taking care of her ever since, and when it started everyone just assumed she was theirs. Eventually they just shrugged and accepted it, and have since adopted her. Tanny may or may not be aware of this fact, since she's shown an odd amnesia regarding her own former parents (likely trauma related).


	15. Halloween (Season 1)

Tom stared, bored, out of the side of the Diaz family car.

“Why is this taking so long?” he complained. Marco, sitting next to him, rolled his eyes.

“It’s not that bad,” Marco consoled him. “Besides, you’ve been on your phone almost the whole way, anyway.”

“Well, what else am I supposed to be doing?”

A week ago, the Diaz parents had sprung on him that the four of them were heading to some pumpkin place, for what they’d called ‘pre-halloween celebrations’. Marco had seemed excited, at least. Tom, however, wasn’t… one hundred percent sure what Halloween was. He’d heard about it in The Underworld, but only vaguely and in passing, leaving his understanding of whatever it was somewhat lacking. Knowing he probably _should_ have known what it was had made him turn down an explanation from Marco, so he’d been stuck looking stuff up on his earth-side phone. He’d seen stuff about harvests, which sort of fit the stuff he vaguely remembered from The Underworld, but most of it was about monsters and candy and haunted houses.

That last one was kind of surprise. What were those doing on earth?

Anyway…

“I’ve been coming here since I was a little kid, so there might be a lot of younger kids, but the stuff should still be fun.”

“Great. You all dragged me halfway across the country for a preschool visit.”

“Okay first off, we aren’t even leaving this part of the state, second, it’s not a preschool thing! There’s plenty of stuff there that I’ve enjoyed _every year,_ and if you stop being so-” he waved his hand vaguely, ‘-like _this,_ you will too!”

“Like what?” Tom scowled, and Marco sighed angrily.

“Mr. Too-Cool-For-School?” Marco said. “Just give stuff a try, okay?”

“Fine, I’ll-” Tom paused as he processed something. “You think I’m cool?”

“Yes?” Marco answered, obviously confused. “Why wouldn’t I-”

“Kids, we’re here!”

“Oh _finally._ ”

….………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

“Alright, you boys go have fun!” Mrs. Diaz told them, giving them both a pamphlet/map she’d probably picked up at the entrance stand, “we’re going to go walk around.”

“Okay,” Marco began, opening the map for a second and checking for anything that had been changed since his last visit. Spotting no changes, he folded the map back up and put it in one of his hoodie’s pockets. “There’s inflatable slides and stuff that way,” he pointed towards the far end of the place, “and there’s potato sack slides and a pirate ship shaped thing to climb over there, with ropes and stuff.” He gestured somewhere off to their right, before pointing to the left. “The hayrides and stuff are over there, and there’s a hay bale maze and stuff in the middle of the place. Where do you want to start?”

“I don’t know what any of that stuff is,” Tom said blandly.

“What, really?” Marco asked startled, and Tom shoved his hands in his pockets in angry embarrassment.

“No!” he snarled at Marco, who held up his hands in mostly-mock-surrender.

“Hey, Tom, it’s fine. We’ll just start at the right and go in a circle, okay? I’ll explain anything that isn’t self-evident. …which should be basically nothing, actually.”

….………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Marco looked up at the wooden pirate ship. It was smaller than he remembered, but it was still several times his height. There was a pole and a few slides to slide down, a rope to climb up, and the inside was hollow with stairs inside. Normally, Marco would be more self-conscious about ‘kiddie stuff’ like this, but he’d been coming here for years and so he found that he didn’t really care.

Tom, however, was a different story.

“Marco, come on, this is obviously for little kids,” Tom scoffed as Marco climbed the inner stairs to reach the highest slide. “You have more dignity than this, man.”

“Just shut up and let me slide, please,” Marco huffed, before shoving off from the top.

It was a lot faster than he remembered. So much so that his trip down didn’t end when the slide did.

“ARGH!” Marco yelped, having not expected the sudden drop to the ground. Luckily for him, the ground had some sort of plastic-covered padding or something, so he wouldn’t have to deal with a bruised backside later, at least. Marco frowned.

“Tom, I _know_ you’re snickering at me!” he yelled up at the top of the pirate ship where the demon was slouched against the mast by the stairs. He couldn’t hear him, no, but he still _knew._

Tom didn’t reply. Or if he did, it was too faint for Marco to hear. Marco crossed his arms for a bit, then smirked when an idea hit him.

“Well, are you gonna slide or what?” he called up to his friend, cupping his hands around his mouth in the hopes that it would make him easier to hear. “Or is the bigshot prince of The Underworld scared of heights?”

“I am not!” he heard Tom yell back at him. “This is just stupid!”

“What’s that?” Marco called back. “All I heard was a chicken squawking!”

Tom was going to freaking kill him later, Marco was sure. It did, at least, get Tom to go down the slide (Tom landed even farther away from the end of the slide than Marco did.)

….…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

“Is there anything here that _isn’t_ a slide?” Tom asked, eyeing the multiple metal sheets going down the steep hill by the pirate ship that acted like slides, with a pile of potato sacks or something next to them for added frictionlessness.

“Uh, yeah,” Marco reminded him. “The hayrides and corn maze?”

“There’s an obnoxious amount of slides in this place.”

“How do you have an obnoxious amount of _slides?_ ”

Tom waved his hands around a bit.

“I don’t know! These people managed it!”

Marco sighed.

“Look, we can skip this if you want to, but we have like, three hours to kill still, at least.”

Tom rolled his eyes and sighed dramatically, as though going on the steep, fast slide was some sort of terrible burden he was nobly bearing. Marco rolled his eyes at the demon’s theatrics, and started walking towards the potato sack slides.

“Whoa, whoa wait! Marco! Wait for me!”

….……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

“Wow, another slide. Whod’a thunk it?”

“Yes, I get it Tom, you’re sick of slides.”

“Great.” Tom gestured to the giant inflatable slide. “Can we skip this one, then?”

“Give it at least one go,” Marco bargained. “This one’s different.”

“Different,” Tom deadpanned.

“Yeah, it’s… uh… bouncy…”

“Bouncy. Well, that changes everything doesn’t it?”

“Would you just try and have fun already?” Marco asked, exasperated.

“It’s dumb.”

Marco sighed, not willing to humor his oddly argumentative friend, and dragged Tom towards the inflated steps. 

He didn’t care how the demon puffed himself up and grumbled about it being for little kids once they’d moved on, he _saw_ Tom’s grin after his first ride.

….………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

“Well, at least it’s not _another_ slide,” Tom observed, looking over the hay bales.

“Yeah, don’t worry, we’re done with the slides,” Marco assured him with an eye roll. Seriously, what the heck was up with Tom today? He’d hoped Tom would have fun here, but he was acting obnoxiously snooty. “It’s just a maze.”

The maze itself was obviously for little kids, since the two teenagers could almost see over the ‘walls’ if they were to stand on their tip-toes. Tom looked just as unimpressed with it as he had with literally everything else, and Marco was seriously starting to get sick of this. He wasn’t quite at a breaking point yet, though.

“Alright, well, let’s just see how fast we can get through this-” a thought struck Marco. “And no levitating or setting anything on fire!”

Tom crossed his arms and huffed. Marco wasn’t sure if that was supposed to mean he’d caught the demon or if his friend was upset that Marco didn’t trust him. It could have been either, honestly. Marco would later be thankful that he’d refused to leave Tom in the maze, because he’d still had to stop him from setting the thing on fire. 

After about half an hour, Tom stomped out of the maze, snarling, and Marco had no idea what had gotten him so angry in the first place.

“Okay, seriously?!” Marco asked, glaring at Tom. “You’re acting like a toddler.” Tom’s attitude had just been getting worse and worse all day and Marco had no idea what was wrong with him. Now he was practically throwing a tantrum.

“I am not!” Tom snapped, but didn’t turn to look at him. Marco was decidedly unimpressed.

“Right,” the human drawled, “you’re the _picture_ of maturity right now.”

Tom still refused to turn to look at Marco. Doing so would reveal how hard he was blushing and how embarrassed he was, which was the _last_ thing he wanted. It was bad enough he’d struggled to find the way out of a maze for _three-year-olds,_ which was mortifying on it’s own, but he’d been stupid enough to lose his temper again over it!

Marco had called him cool, and nobody who _knew_ him called him cool, so he’d wanted to act like it but there was nothing here to _do_ except for stuff for little kids and it was all just stupid and demeaning and - ARGH! This entire situation was just stupid! And it’s not like he could tell _Marco_ that! What was he supposed to do now?!

…Apologize, probably. That seemed like the kind of thing you were supposed to do in these types of situations.

Before Tom actually could though, Marco walked up to him and put a hand on his shoulder.

“Look, dude,” Marco started, sounding like he didn’t know what to say. “Can you just… tell me what the heck’s going on with you?”

Tom didn’t answer. He couldn’t.

Ugh, what had happened to his determination to apologize?

“Fine,” Marco said, and Tom didn’t miss the irritation in his friend’s voice, though Marco was obviously trying to hide it. “They had some food stalls over by the entrance, if you don’t think _food_ is too ‘lame’ for you or something.”

….………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

The two boys ate their hotdogs in silence, not looking at each other.

Marco didn’t like arguing with Tom, and he wasn’t sure what they were doing would be considered arguing, but he still didn’t like it. That said, _he_ hadn’t done anything wrong, he was pretty sure, so what was he supposed to do? Apologize for trying to get Tom to have some fun? Ugh. Was whatever it was that was wrong really so mortifying that Tom couldn’t tell him?

Tom, meanwhile was split between feeling guilty and wanting to stay offended that Marco seemed to be determined to force him to do stupid kiddie stuff. Normally he wasn’t the kind of guy who cared about what people saw him do (ok, no, that was a lie but he was usually pretty good at faking it which was what mattered), but Marco was another story. Which was stupid, in this case, because Marco was the one _encouraging_ him to do the things, but since when had his temper ever made sense?

Marco finished his hotdog and stood up.

“Hey, I’m headed towards the hayride,” he said, tossing his wrapper in a nearby garbage can. “Do you want to come with or stay here and wallow, or…?”

Tom quickly stood up himself, burning his own wrapper and shoving his hands in his pants pockets.

“Yeah, sure.”

….………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Tom glanced around as he got into the… whatever it was attached to somebody’s tractor. Marco sat down on a hay bale nearest to the tractor and after a second Tom sat down next to him. Tom glanced at the human, who wasn’t looking at him, but before he could apologize more people got onto the ride and killed his chance. 

He jerked slightly and lightly whacked some guy next to him with his horns when the ride began to move, and promptly felt like an even bigger idiot. What was he expecting when the thing was hooked up to a tractor and called a hay _ride?_ Ugh.

“Hey, man, mind taking those off?” the guy he’d whacked, who was covered head-to-toe in black and wearing some sort of gas-mask thing, asked him. “I mean, cool costume and all, but maybe just for the ride?”

Tom stared at him.

“Yeah, these don’t come off.”

“Dwayne, leave the kid alone,” some lady sighed. ‘Dawyne’ looked at her.

“Dwayne, who is this Dwayne? I’m Darth Vader!”

The lady gave him a flat look.

“I really need to get you to actually watch Star Wars, your Vader impression is _terrible._ ”

The two strangers started a conversation and started to promptly ignore the demon, and Tom turned back to Marco. Who still wasn’t looking at him. Ugh.

….………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

They hay ride wasn’t too bad, kind of relaxing, if really bumpy. They’d been driven around the whatever the place they were at was called, and out into areas that were apparently not available to the public otherwise, which had had a bunch of cardboard cutouts of monsters and even some fake bats and stuff hanging from trees, which might have been fake themselves actually.

Marco had, at least, pointed stuff out to him, so Tom figured that meant he wasn’t upset at him anymore, right? The demon himself had pretty much completely calmed down, and was now mostly just suffering from a sick, guilty feeling in his stomach. Ugh. This was just one of many reasons why he hated his stupid temper.

“Hey, there’s just one more part of this place left,” Marco told him, grabbing Tom’s arm suddenly and making him jump slightly. A stab of humiliation hit the demon at that and Tom forced himself to take a deep breath. Marco noticed and let go, but otherwise didn’t visibly react. When he spoke next, though, his tone was a little flatter. “Come on, we can find my parents after this.”

….………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Marco watched Tom carefully as he stared at the petting zoo. Tom wasn’t acting completely psycho anymore, but it was still getting irritating how often he lost his temper at some of the most random stuff. The most annoying part of it today was that Marco had _no idea_ what had set him off this time. Marco also had no idea how Tom would react to the petting zoo. He was pretty sure Tom liked animals, at least. He had that probably-demonic bunny.

“Uh. What do I do?” Tom asked him. Marco gave him a confused look.

“Have you never been to a petting zoo before?”

“Of course I have!” Tom defended, sounding slightly offended. “But Earth petting zoos and Underworld petting zoos could be different, I dunno!”

Marco looked at the demon. Honestly, that sounded more like something he’d say.

“Tom, seriously, what’s up with you today?”

“Nothing’s ‘up’ with me,” Tom defended and Marco glared at him slightly for the blatant lie. “Look, I’m just gonna…” he pointed at the various farm animals. “…yeah.”

….………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Tom, for the first time that day, didn’t bother to hide that he was enjoying himself as he fed one of the little goats. How could he when they were so cute? He started petting it with his free had and glanced at Marco, who was actually looking at him now, though Tom frowned at his expression. Did Marco think he would hurt the goat or something? Tom’s petting got a little more harsh than he meant for it to, but the goat only looked at him and bleated instead of running off.

“Sorry,” he told it. Him? He wasn’t sure. Tom sighed and looked around. There weren’t a lot of people here, just a couple of siblings that looked around six-ish (one of them was squealing slightly as a small sheep ate food out of her hand), some older dude with a lightning necklace who was cooing over another goat, and what looked like a couple on a date or something, wearing matching half-heart shirts. With so few people around, Tom figured it was finally time to bite the bullet. Sighing, he stood up and walked over to Marco.

“Hey man, uh,” Tom started, before Marco cut him off.

“Whatever it is, sanitize your hands first if you’re done.”

Tom scowled, threw his hands in the air, and went to do just that.

….………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

“Marco, look…” Tom started, rubbing the back of his neck. “I’m sorry about earlier, okay?”

“I’m not mad, Tom,” Marco told him with a sigh. “I just want to know what the heck that was all about?” Tom glared at the ground silently. “Please?”

The please broke him.

“It’s just! I dunno, man, it’s…” he let out an angry sigh. “This is all dumb kid stuff. I’m not some stupid kid, so why do I have to do any of it?”

Marco winced slightly. He hadn’t meant to… what? Embarrass Tom? Well, okay, that one time at the pirate slide he’d meant to, but otherwise not so much. It was just… so unlike Tom to be bothered by stuff like this, or so Marco had thought anyway. He’d thought Tom would have enjoyed himself, at least a little more than he obviously had anyway.

“...I’m sorry too. I didn’t mean to shove you super hard out of your comfort zone, or whatever. I thought you’d have fun. I mean, it’s not like we’re going to see anyone here again, ever, so… I guess I didn’t see the harm in doing ‘kiddie’ stuff. You know, for once.”

Neither boy said anything for several seconds.

“How often is this kind of thing going to happen?” Marco asked finally. “I hate fighting with you. It sucks.”

“I’m trying to control my temper!” Tom defended. “I-”

“Dude it was… it was a rhetorical question. It’s not like this was all your fault. I’m the idiot who couldn’t piece why you were upset together, even though I really, really should have since I know the feeling so well.”

“Oh.”

This time it was Tom who interpreted the awkward silence.

“So… do you wanna, I dunno, go do that bounce thing again?”

Marco smiled and nodded.

….………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

“Oh, kids, there you are!” Mr. Diaz said, glancing up from his watch and noticing the teenagers return. Both he and his wife were carrying a pumpkin as they stood by the gate to leave.

“Yeah, uh, here we are.”

“Did you two have fun?” Mrs. Diaz asked. The two teens looked at each other and shrugged out vague answers. The parents looked at each other in mild concern before shrugging it off. They were sure if there was a real problem the two would come to them after all.

“What’s with the pumpkins?” Tom asked as the group headed out to the parking lot.

“I’ll explain on the way,” Marco told him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ***chaos dunks this into a03 while screaming about how this was supposed to be a drabble that I started at the end of _May_ ***
> 
>  
> 
> Hi I hate the resolution to this but it's almost 4 PM and I need to give y'all _something_.


	16. Father's Day 1/4

Buff Frog looked around, confused. He was in some sort of tall, empty room, with walls made of cool stone. It was also very dark, though the room was covered in windows, no light shone through them.

Where the heck was he?

There were scattered pieces of wood, metal, and stone in a variety of shapes scattered across the wet brick floor. He had no idea what they were for.

Something small poked him in the leg, and he looked down, and nearly jumped away when he saw what had poked him.

It looked like a baby, vaguely, but was standing upright and seemed to be made up of a vague outline of small lights- like stars in the night sky. There were enough lights to just barely form the outline of a person, no more, except for twelve blue lights on the baby’s ‘face’ where it’s eyes should have been. Two lights alone, five surrounding each of them.

“I’m so hungry,” the… thing said, and the feeling of something being extremely off only increased. That was _not_ a baby’s voice. “Do you have something for Mewmans to eat?”

Buff Frog could only make a confused noise before he woke up.

….………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Buff Frog startled awake, then looked around in confusion. What was he doing outside? Why wasn’t he in his house in Monster Village?

Then he remembered. The Hunting Party and their siege. Morioco and the others death and funeral. Leaving with…

He went to check on the baby, on his baby, oh corn he was a father now. She was wrapped up in blankets and leaves and as many soft things as he could find. He’d seriously considered getting rid of the sheets she’d been wrapped in, they were stained with blood, his Katrina’s blood most likely, and were starting to smell, but every bit helped, especially without a roof over their heads.

Why had he thought this was a good idea?!

Buff Frog closed his eyes to calm himself. This little girl needed him, he was the only one who could do this. Mainly because he was the only one, period.

Katrina fidgeted in her sleep, her tiny, cut-up face scrunching up like she was going to wake up and start crying any minute, and Buff Frog froze.

Food! He didn’t know where the thought came from, but he abruptly realized he had no idea what to even feed her. Did Mewman and Frogman babies eat different things?! Probably! 

He carefully set Katrina down and began to dig through his pack, hoping that something would look right. Nothing did. He resisted the urge to sigh and looked at Katrina again. She would be hungry soon, if she wasn’t already, and he had no food. He could possibly scavenge something for himself in a hurry, but her?

He needed help.

….………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Boo Fly groaned and waved a hand at the sound of his compact going off. It was way too early for this. He didn’t bother checking the caller I.D., since that would require lifting his head up from the ground.

“Go die,” he told the person on the other end groggily, and hung up. The compact buzzed again. He groaned and picked up for real this time, checking the caller I.D. and everything. “Buff Frog it’s like, two thirty in the morning.”

“I am sorry my friend, but I am needing your help desperately.”

“Wha-” he yawned. “What’dya need?” he asked.

“I need someone to keep an eye on my daughter while I try to find food for her. Before she wakes up.”

He was even more tired than he thought.

“Whuzzat?” Boo Fly asked. Buff Frog sighed.

“I adopted a beautiful little girl. But I am realizing now that I do not have any food for her.”

“Buff Frog. You weren’t a dad when I saw you _yesterday._ ”

“Yes, it happened shortly after you left, when I was preparing to leave myself.”

“Why would y- how did ya even-” Boo Fly groaned. “Nevermind. Fine. Where the heck are you?” There was a pause. “Don’t tell me you don’t-”

“It is dark!” Buff Frog snapped. “Give me second…”

After about a full minute, Buff Frog managed to get enough of his barrings to give Boo Fly some directions to where he was. When the Flyman got there, he saw his friend pacing anxiously, a bundle of gross-smelling cloth in his arms. For half a second Boo Fly thought maybe the baby had, well… before realizing that no, that was definitely blood he smelled.

He flew a little faster. Then froze.

“Buff Frog. Bud. Pal. I don’t know how to tell ya’ this. But. That’s a-” Buff Frog held up his hand.

“I am aware she is Mewman, my friend.”

“Where the fu-” Buff Frog glared. Boo Fly stopped and cleared his throat before continuing. “Where the _actual heck_ did you find a Mewman baby?!”

“Some teenagers found her and brought her to me,” Buff Frog told him. “They said she was… in Hunter caravan.”

“What?!” If Boo Fly hadn’t been awake before, he was now. “She was in the _caravan?!_ Wait, _what were a bunch of teenagers doing in the_ wait no they were teenagers that makes sense.” He shook his head. “Buff Frog, if she was in the caravan, doesn’t that mean her parents were probably…” He trailed off, not wanting to say it.

“Is likely they were Hunters, yes,” Buff Frog admitted sadly, before his eyes hardened. “But if they were… look at her, Boo Fly. She is hurt, and badly. It was not monsters that made these cuts and burns. I do not want to think her parents would… but if her parents were on that caravan… and why would baby be if they were not?”

“Maybe they took her?”

“If mewmans took her from her parents,” he sighed, “is likely they are no longer alive. If parents were on caravan, then is likely they agreed to such experiments. Whichever it is, she has no one _now._ ”

There was a pause.

“So… what? You’re just gonna adopt some random baby with a tragic backstory?”

Buff Frog gave him a rueful smile.

“That is plan, yes.”

“You’re nuts, man.”

“I could not let baby _die._ What other options did I have?”

He had a point. Boo Fly sighed.

“Alright, what’dya want me to do, anyway?”

….………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

What he wanted Boo Fly to do was, apparently, to look after the baby, whom he’d named Katrina apparently, while he tried to figure out what to get her to eat. Boo Fly had then pointed out that that was dumb. He’d had the baby a few hours, didn’t he want her to know that Buff Frog was her dad (now anyway)? He was pretty sure parents were supposed to bond with their babies when they got them or something. So instead, now _Boo Fly_ was going to go spying for Buff Frog while the frogman watched over his daughter.

Buff Frog held the tiny baby carefully. Corn, were all babies this small? And those cuts… they weren’t actively bleeding, but they’d still hurt her when she woke up, wouldn’t they? If they weren’t hurting her in her sleep…

He carefully traced a finger around the wounds on her cheeks, wondering what kind of evil person would do such a thing to her when she twitched. Buff Frog froze as she screwed her face up and waved her hands, then managed to grab his finger. A second later, her watery blue eyes opened.

Oh no. He still didn’t have anything to feed her!

Her rocked her stiffly and awkwardly as she began to cry.

“Shhh, little Katrina,” he told her, for lack of anything else to say. “You will be alright. Boo Fly is looking for food for you, and I am here.”

Katrina didn’t stop crying. The idea crossed Buff Frog’s mind that she might have been crying in pain rather than hunger, and he desperately hoped that wasn’t the case. Maybe she was just scared by all the newness? That was a thing that happened, right?

….………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Katrina hadn’t managed to quite calm down by the time Boo Fly returned, but she had at least gone from ‘uncontrollable bawling’ to ‘quiet hiccuping’.

“Did you bring something for her to eat?” Buff Frog asked.

“Yeah man, got just the thing right here.” Boo Fly held up a bottle of white liquid. “It’s a good thing for you that babies don’t care what time it is when it comes to eating. Well. Okay. It’s good for _me,_ doing this exact thing. Maybe not so much for you.”

Buff Frog sighed.

“What is in bottle?” he asked.

“Milk. Like, goat milk, specifically.”

Buff Frog nodded, committing that to memory as he took the bottle. He nervously held out the bottle towards Katrina, who eyed it between hiccups before finally drinking it some. She seemed to calm down some as she drank and Buff Frog smiled at her.

“So, anyway,” Boo Fly started, “what’cha gonna do? If you’re gonna take care of the kid, you can’t just… camp out forever.”

“Was not planning on doing that even before Katrina,” Buff Frog mumbled, before continuing in a more conversational tone. “I was thinking to look for possible home, is unlikely I will find vacant one though. Likely have to make one myself…” He shook his head. “I will look for place where mewmans unlikely to pass through. What is your plan?”

“Same as before, head to the nearest family member, hope they’ll let me crash on their couch.”

“I wish you luck.”

“Hey man, you’re probably gonna need more luck than me.”

“Still.”

….………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

It had been a rough few days after that, but Buff Frog managed to find a swamp in the Forest of Certain Death, a ways away from any mewman roads, with a large dead tree in it that he got to work on hollowing out. It would work short-term, at least, until he could make a better house for the two of them. Just in time, too, since the unusual rainless streak for the season finally broke two days after he’d finally finished with the roof.

The place was flooded, of course, turning patches of the dirt floor into shallow mud pits, but that was fine. Mud was great for the skin, and Katrina, whose wounds had finally all closed completely albeit with some scarring, seemed to adore playing in it.

Food had gone from a major priority to THE major priority once the house was finished, and it was with no small amount of reluctance that Buff Frog had been forced to leave his beloved daughter at home more than once. She was just a baby, far too young to bring with him, although Boo Fly had at least become his number one babysitter. He’d be forever grateful for his old friends help, no matter how many times he’d told Buff Frog this time was ‘the last time’. Eventually, Buff Frog just decided to steal a goat. It hadn’t been the easiest thing in the world to do, but he managed. 

Once milk for Katrina had stopped being as much of a problem, he’d taken Katrina to his old, burned-down childhood home in the hopes of finding some better supplies for taking care of babies, and had lucked out in finding a cradle and several of his and his siblings old toys and games that were mostly in one piece and a handful of books that weren’t destroyed. She wouldn’t be able to play with most of them yet, of course, but it was something for the future. The books, of course, would make excellent bedtimes stories.

After he’d strapped the large bundle of objects to his back and picked Katrina up, huffing slightly under the strain of the weight, he gave the old home one last look around. It was a miracle half of the things had survived, given the condition of the place, there was only one solid wall left on the place, and most of it was burnt. The ceiling had long ago caved in, and only a small part of it was even left after all the years of no upkeep. The floor, which he had refused to let Katrina anywhere near, was more mold than wood or mud. The things Buff Frog was taking with him, the only things in any sort of decent condition, had been stored in a secret basement which had mostly caved in. It was a painful wreck to look at, both for how it was now, and the memories associated with the night he’d left.

Buff Frog shook his head, hoping his daughter would never have to see something as painful as this.

“Is a shame you will never have grandparents,” he told Katrina. “But they were good people. I believe they would love you as I do.”

Katrina gurgled and clapped her hands.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes I know October is way too late for a Father's Day anything don't judge me.
> 
> I headcannon that Frogmen usually have pretty large families and while us never seeing Buff Frog's family aside from his tadpoles is _probably_ just because he's not a focus character, well, violence against monsters is nothing new in the Monster Carvers-verse.


End file.
